MERiCAN FATRKY 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap.!r..ll^opyright No 



UNITED STATES 



W^ 



1^ 
MERICA. 



FOUR AMERICAN PATRIOTS 

Patrick Henry Alexander Hamilton 
Andrew Jackson Ulysses S. Grant 



A BOOK FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 



By alma HOLMAN BURTON 




WERNER SCHOOL BOOK COMPANY 
NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON 



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QO.->/-. 

THE FOUR GREAT AMERICANS SERIES 

Biographical Stories of Great Americans for Young Americans 

EDITED BY 

James Baldwin, Ph.D. 

TN these biographical stories the lives of great Americans 
"'■ are presented in such a manner as to hold the attention of 
the youngest reader. In these lives the child finds the most 
inspiring examples of good citizenship and true patriotism. 

VOLUMES NOW READY: 

I. FOUR GREAT AMERICANS 

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, 
Abraham Lincoln 

By JAMES BALDWIN, Ph.D. 

Cloth, 246 pages , , , , Price, 50 cents 

II. FOUR AMERICAN PATRIOTS 

Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson 
U. S. Grant 

By ALMA HOLMAN BURTON 
Author of The Story of Our Country, etc. 

Cloth, 256 pages ^ , , , Price, 50 cents 



OTHER VOLUMES IN PREPARATION 



Copyright, 1898, by WERNER SCHOOL BOOK COMPANY 



JTfje ILaftfBitie '^xti% 

-'} R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 

CHICAGO 



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(( JUL-51B98 \ 
\^^^„ ,^J 



CONTENTS 



THE STORY OF PATRICK HENRY 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Childhood ....... 9 

II. The Young Merchant . . . . n 

III. The Farm and the Shop . . . -14 

IV. The License to Practice Law . . 19 
V. The King and His Province . . .23 

VI. The Parsons' Cause .... 26 

VII. The Stamp Act . . . . . .30 

VIII. In the House of Burgesses . '. . ' 33 

IX. The Continental Congress . • ' • 35 

X. The Speech in Carpenters' Hall . J 39 

XI. Taking up Arms Against the King . . 43 

XII. The Declaration of Independence . 48 

XIII. The First Governor of the State of Virginia 53 

XIV. The Close of the War . . . -55 
XV. The Constitution of the United States 60 

XVI. "The Sun Has Set in All His Glory." . 63 

3 



CONTENTS. 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Orphan Boy of Nevis, ... 71 

n. The Voyage, ...... 76 

IIL '*The Little West Indian," ... 80 

IV. "The Vindicator of Congress," . . 83 

V. "The Little Lion," ..... 87 

VI. Washington's Aide-de-camp, ... 93 

VII. Hamilton the Patriot and Arnold the 

Traitor, ...... 97 

VIII. The Lawyer, ...... loi 

IX. The Statesman, 105 

X. The Federalist, 110 

XI. The First Secretary of the Treasury, 115 

XII. The Inspector General of the Army, . 120 

XIII. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 123 

XIV. The Duel, 126 



CONTENTS. 



THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Birth, 133 

II. Boyhood, ....... 136 

III. The Young Prisoner of War, . . 141 

IV. The Lawyer, ...... 146 

V. The District Attorney, . . . 149 

VI. The Congressman, .. . . . . 152 

VII. Storekeeper, Judge, and Planter, . 156 

VIII. ''Old Hickory," . . . . . . 160 

IX. The Creek War, 164 

X. The Battle of New Orleans, . , . 169 

XI. Governor of Florida, .... 176 

XII. The Hermitage, ...... 180 

XIII. President of the United States, . . 185 

XIV. Death at the Hermitage, . . . 188 



CONTENTS. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

PAGE 

I. Naming the Baby, 195 



CHAPTER 



II. The Home in Georgetown, . . . 198 

III. The West Point Cadet, . . . 203 

IV. The Mexican War, 208 

V. On the Pacific Coast, .... 214 

VI. Farmer and Leather Merchant, . . 218 

VII. The War for the Union, . . . 221 

VIII. Forts Henry and Donelson, . . . 226 

IX. Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, . . 231 

X. ViCKSBURG, 233 

XI. Chattanooga, 239 

XII. The Close of the War, .... 242 

XIII. President of the United States, . 245 

XIV. The Travels of Ulysses, .... 248 
XV. The Closing Years, .... 252 



THE STORY OF 

PATRICK HENRY 




PA TRICK HENR V. 



THE STORY OF PATRICK HENRY 



I. — Childhood. 



Patrick Henry was born on the 29th of May, 
1736, in Hanover County, Virginia. George Wash- 
ington was born on the 22d of February, 1732, in 
Westmoreland County. 

While one was a baby rocking in his cradle, the 
other was still so small that he played about in 
dresses like a girl. 

Many years later these Virginia boys were^reat 
friends, and, as we shall see, they became two 
of the most famous men in the history ''of our 
country. v 

The blue-eyed Patrick grew very fast. When 
he was old enough to go about alone, he found 
playmates in the woods. 

The birds sang to him, the fishes dared him to 
dive into the clear water after them, and the bees 
often droned about him until he fell asleep on the 
grass. 

Patrick's father was a Scotchman from Aber- 

9 



I O THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

deen, and some of his father's people were scholars 
of such renown that they were known throughout 
Europe. 

He told the boy all about these noted ancestors, 
and started a private school to encourage him to 
study to make a great man of himself. 

But Patrick did not care very much for books. 
He liked to guide a canoe down the South Anna 
River, which ran past the little farm where he lived. 
He spent many hours on the green bank watching 
the cork of his fishing rod. He often wandered 
far into the forest to set traps for the game. And 
you can easily guess that his lessons were never 
very well prepared. 

His mother always took him to the Presbyterian 
church to hear Mr. Davies preach. 

Mr. Davies was a wonderful man. He was tall 
and erect. His face was beautiful, and his manners 
were so polished that some one said he seemed like 
the embassador of a great king. 

At church Patrick kept his eyes wide open and 
listened to every word the preacher said. When he 
returned home, his mother would ask him to give 
the text and repeat all of the sermon he could. 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. II 

Patrick loved to imitate the clear, sweet voice 
and graceful gestures of Mr. Davies. His mother 
said she hoped he would make a preacher. 

But his father said he did not like books well 
enough for that. At last he said he believed the 
boy would never be a scholar, and that he was only 
fit for some kind of trade. So he sent him to live 
with a merchant, that he might learn how to buy 
and sell goods. 



II. — The Young Merchant. 

After Patrick had clerked for a year, his father 
bought some tea and coffee and spices, some 
woolen and cotton cloths, and some tin and iron 
ware from a British trader. Then he gave all that 
he had bought to Patrick and his elder brother, 
William, to set up business for themselves. 

The boys were very proud of their new shop. 

They swept it out and dusted it every morning, and 
put samples of their goods in the window where 
the light streamed through many small panes of 
glass. 



1 2 THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR V. 

Now, the shop was not in a city nor even in a 
village. It was on the edge of their father's small 
farm. 

For miles around there were large farms or plan- 
tations, each with a fine house where a planter 
lived. About the houses clustered the log cabins 
of the negro slaves. Farther off in the skirts of 
the forest stood the huts of the poor whites. 

The place was rather lonesome for business. 
Sometimes a fine coach stopped at the little shop 
and a pompous planter made a purchase. But the 
rich did not buy much there. They traded at their 
own wharves with the British merchants who came 
in shallops up the river. 

They exchanged bales of tobacco for boxes and 
barrels of goods which they kept in the store-rooms 
of their houses. The slaves did not buy anything, 
for their masters clothed and fed them. It was only 
the small farmers and the poor whites who lived 
from hand to mouth that traded with the Henry 
boys. 

This class of people did not have much money. 
They often paid their bills by making friendly 
visits. They lounged about the shop telling 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. I 3 

stories, cracking jokes, and quarreling with one 
another. 

Patrick lay on the counter watching them. 
He did not talk much himself, but when he re- 
turned home he amused the rest of the family 
by screwing his face around and changing his 
voice until he looked and spoke like each one of 
his customers. 

As the days went by, the boys found it very tire- 
some waiting for trade. William went sometimes 
behind the shelves to drink from a bottle of rum. 
Patrick never drank rum. When he heard the 
birds calling, he skipped away for a tramp through 
the woods. 

If he chanced to see the tracks of deer, he fol- 
lowed them far into the underbrush. Perhaps he 
returned after several hours to find his brother 
asleep and somebody waiting to buy a penny's 
worth of something. 

Of course, business could not be a success when 
carried on in that way. Before the year was out 
the brothers found their goods all gone and their 
shop closed up. 

William went more and more to a grog shop, 



1 4 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

and became a very worthless fellow indeed. But 
Patrick was kind and gentle in his manners ; he 
played well on the violin and was a great favorite 
with the young people in the neighborhood. 

And so the years passed by, and he grew up to 
be a tall young man, without having learned any 
useful business whereby he might earn a living 
through honest labor. 



III. — The Farm and the Shop. 

Patrick won the love of a bright-eyed little lass 
who had bought many a ha'penny worth of his 
peppermints. He was poor, and so was she; but 
he said by putting their shoulders together they 
might be better able to bear their poverty. 

He was only eighteen, and she was younger 
still; but he said that their ages together made 
over thirty years. That sounded very old indeed! 
And so without a dollar in his pocket Patrick 
Henry married little Sarah Shelton. 

Patrick's father gave him a small patch of land, 
and Sarah's father gave her two or three slaves 
to set up house keeping with. 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



15 



The tall Virginia boy went into the tobacco 
field with his negroes. He dressed in homespun 
and looked like a farmer; and when the neigh- 
bors rode past, they smilingly said, " That boy 
of John Henry's is finding out how to work." 

Patrick worked hard on week days. When Sun- 
day came, he always went to church. 

Like his father, he was an Episcopalian, but he 
loved so well to hear Mr. Davies preach that he 
attended the Presbyterian church. 

One Sunday in May, 1755, Mr. Davies talked 
about war. 

The country north of the Ohio River belonged to 
the English colonies, yet the French from Canada 
were building forts there to keep the English away. 

King George had sent General Braddock to 
America with an army of grenadiers, and a Vir- 
ginia regiment was marching to join him. 

They would go to the Ohio country and drive 
out the French. 

Patrick wished very much that he might be a 
soldier and help fight for the king. But the wife 
and babies must be fed, and so he toiled on in the 
field with the negroes. 



] 6 THE S TOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

One Sunday in August Mr. Davies looked very 
sad when he rose to preach. 

He said that news had just come from the Ohio 
country. General Braddock had been killed and 
his army defeated. Many brave Virginia boys lay 
dead on the field of battle. 

Yet, he said, a Virginia officer named George 
Washington, had saved a part of the army. 

"Colonel Washington," said Mr. Davies, "is 
only twenty-three years old. I cannot but hope 
that Providence has preserved the youth in so 
signal a manner for some important service to his 
country." 

"Ah," thought Patrick, "George Washington 
has done so much for his country, and he is only 
twenty-three! " 

He looked down at his hands. They were brown 
and rough with toil. 

"Alas!" he said, "I do my best, and yet I cannot 
even make a living on my little farm! " 

This was quite true. 

Patrick could not make his crops grow. Then 
his house caught fire and burned to the ground. 
It was all very discouraging ! 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. I 7 

He thought, if he tried once more, he might 
succeed as a merchant. So he sold his slaves, 
and with the money which they brought he built 
a house and purchased a small stock of goods. 

That very year the tobacco crop failed. People 
were not able to pay for what they bought. There 
was nothing to do but wait for the next crop. 

Meantime Patrick's shop became the lounging 
place for the whole neighborhood. 

The small planters and overseers dropped in to 
talk about crops. The trappers from beyond the 
Blue Ridge Mountains stopped with their packs 
of furs to tell of the Indians on the fron- 
tiers. 

The ferrymen who paddled the boats across the 
river repeated the latest gossip of the Yankee 
peddlers from New York and Boston and Phila- 
delphia. The sons of the rich planters stopped 
often to talk about horse-racing, cock-fighting, 
and deer-stalking. But more than all else, these 
young fellows talked about the French war in the 
North. 

One day they told of the dashing British officers 
who were stopping at Alexandria, and declared 



1 8 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

that red coats and gold lace were turning the 
heads of all the pretty girls. 

Another day they said young Colonel George 
Washington, with a Virginia regiment, had joined 
the British General Forbes, and they were march- 
ing together to capture the French fort on the 
Ohio River. 

And then, a few weeks later, they hurried in to 
tell how the French fort was taken, and how every- 
body thought that the French would be defeated 
at Quebec. 

Now, all this talking was very exciting! Nobody 
enjoyed it more than Patrick himself. Yet talking 
would not settle bills. The tobacco crop failed a 
second time, and he was obliged to shut up his shop. 

And so, at the age of twenty-three, Patrick 
Henry, with a wife and little children to provide 
for, did not have a shilling in his pocket. But his 
father helped a little and Sarah's father helped a 
little, and they managed to keep the wolf from 
the door. 

" There is one thing I can say about Patrick," 
said Sarah's father; ''he does not swear nor drink, 
nor keep bad company." 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



19 



IV. — The License to Practice Law. 

It was just about Christmas time that Patrick 
failed in business. 

There was great merry-making in the neighbor- 
hood; and on Christmas eve, the young people 
were all invited to a party at the house of Colonel 
Dandridge, a rich planter living near the Henrys. 
Thomas Jefferson was one of the guests. 

He was a fine lad, sixteen years old, and was on 
his way to attend William and Mary College at 
Williamsburg. 

When Jefferson was introduced to Patrick Henry, 
he thought him a very rough-looking fellow; but 
he soon found that he was the best fiddler, the 
best story-teller, and the jolliest joker in the 
company. 

When he heard about his misfortunes and saw 
the lonely little shop with its window boarded up 
and its door closed, he said to himself, " It is too 
bad that such a merry soul is so idle and shiftless! " 
He never expected to see the poor merchant 
again. 

A few months later, as Jefferson was sitting in 
his room in Williamsburg, he heard a knock at the 



2 O THE S TOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

door. Imagine his surprise when, upon opening 
it, he saw Patrick Henry, of Hanover County. 

There he stood, dressed in coarse homespun and 
covered with the dust of his journey. His hair 
hung in tangles about his ears. He looked so 
shabby that the rich young student thought he 
had come to beg. 

When Patrick told him he had come to the city 
to pass an examination to be a lawyer, Jefferson 
smiled and thought he must be joking. But the 
deep-set blue eyes looked very serious under the 
shaggy brow. 

" I am going to try to make a man of myself, 
Tom," he said, " and if I pass with the judges I 
shall let you know." 

A few days later Patrick called again. He was 
much elated as he showed his license to practice 
law in the courts of Virginia. 

" I blundered through the questions with two of 
the judges," he said. '' They signed my paper 
just to get rid of me, I think. When I went to the 
third judge, he refused at first even to ask me 
anything. He thought me a greenhorn; I am sure 
of it by the way he looked at me. But I showed 



THE S TOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 21 

him that the others had signed for me, and then he 
began to put questions. 

"Of course, he asked me a great deal that I knew 
nothing about. I was just thinking to myself that 
he would soon quit in disgust, when he made a 
statement that did not sound like good law. We 
argued the question a long time. I got quite hot 
over my side. 

"At last Judge Randolph said, ' You defend 
your opinion well, sir; but now let us look up the 
law.' He opened one book and then another. 
His face flushed. After a moment of silence he 
exclaimed, ' Here are law books which you have 
never read; yet you are right and I am wrong! 
Mr. Henry, if your industry is only half equal to 
your genius, you will prove an ornament to your 
profession!' " 

Jefferson himself expected to be examined some 
day for the law, and listened eagerly to all that 
Patrick said. And when he had finished, he gave 
him his hand, and told him he wished him success 
and invited him for a walk through the city. 

The two passed down the street together. 

Now, Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia. 



2 2 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR K 



Here the governor lived and the House of Bur- 
gesses met to make the laws. 

Just as the boys were admiring the governor's 
mansion, with its fine garden of roses, a great 
coach drawn by six milk-white horses drove out at 
the gate. 

The governor sat inside the coach. He smiled, 
and waved his hand at young Thomas Jefferson, 
who doffed his three-cornered hat and bowed most 
gracefully. 

Then many fair ladies smiled upon the rich and 
elegant college boy. No doubt, they wondered 
that he walked with such an awkward looking 
fellow; but Thomas Jefferson was pleased with the 
wit of his companion. 

They walked through the park and then stopped 
at the famous Raleigh tavern, where Thomas told 
about the gay times the young folks had in the 
ball-room. " But nobody in Williamsburg plays 
the fiddle so well as you, Patrick," he said. 

They visited the capitol, and went up the broad 
portico into the room where the burgesses met. 
And as they looked down from the lobby upon the 
empty seats below, Jefferson talked about the Vir- 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



23 



ginia statesmen whom he had seen there at the last 
session. 

He said that his favorite was Colonel George 
Washington, who had marched with Braddock 
against the Indians and had afterwards captured 
the French fort at the head of the Ohio. 

It was all very interesting to Patrick. He won- 
dered if he should ever meet the famous men who 
sat together on those benches and helped the 
king's officers make laws for the colony of Virginia. 
He was delighted with everything he saw, for he 
had never been in a town before. 

At last he bade good bye to his courteous friend, 
and, mounting his horse, he rode away with his 
lawer's license safe in the saddle bags beneath him. 



V. — The King and His Province. 






It was in 1760 when Patrick Henry got permis- 
sion to be a lawyer. At that time Virginia, like 
most of the other colonies in America, was still a 
province belonging to England. 

The king of England sent over a governor to 



24 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



rule in his stead. The governor chose a few men 
to advise him about the affairs of the province, 
and when they met together they were called the 
council. 

The people elected delegates, called burgesses, 
who met every year in Williamsburg with the 
council. And when the burgesses and the council 
agreed on any measure for the public good, it 
became the law of the land. 

Sometimes the king himself made laws for his 
provinces, without asking the consent of anybody. 
This did not please the people very well. Yet 
they had always been loyal to their king, whatever 
he did. 

It was said that Virginia was the most loyal of 
all the colonies. But when young George the 
Third came to the throne, the Virginians had 
hardly stopped shouting over his coronation before 
they saw that he would make them a great deal 
of trouble. 

The first complaint was about the salaries of 
the clergymen. Because there was so little coin 
in the country, the people paid their debts in 
paper money, or in tobacco. 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENRY. 



The clergy had always been paid in tobacco; but 
one year, when the tobacco crop was poor, the law 
was passed that clergymen should be paid in paper 
money instead of tobacco. This made their salaries 
much smaller than ever before. 

Now, some of the clergy in Virginia were noble 
men, and did a great deal of good, and among 
them was Patrick Henry's own uncle. But 
there were many who were not worthy of the 
name of clergymen. 

They lived in fine houses. They went hunting 
with their hounds across country. They loved 
horse-racing, dice-playing, and wine. They courted 
the rich, and neglected the poor. 

You can guess that such kind of men would not 
like to have their salaries made any less. They 
sent a petition to the king against it. 

The king declared the law void; and then the 
clergymen went into court and sued the tax-col- 
lectors for the full amount of their pay. 

Very few lawyers were willing to oppose the 
clergymen. The king was on their side, and the 
governor favored them, too. 

But when some of the planters in Hanover County 



2 6 THB STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

asked young Patrick Henry to take a case against 
the clergymen, he said he would do the best that 
he could. 



VI. — The Parsons' Cause. 

When it was noised about that the " parsons " 
were having a trial in the little brick court-house, 
people hurried in on horse, on foot, and in car- 
riages. There were rich planters in velvet and 
lace, farmers in homespun, and poor whites in 
rags. 

As Patrick watched them from the door of the 
tavern, he was glad that so many of his neighbors 
would hear his speech. He knew that if he won 
this case he would have many others. 

But when he saw his uncle, the clergyman, step 
from his carriage, his courage failed him. He 
hastened to him, and said respectfully: 

" Uncle, I am to try my first important case to- 
day. I shall not be able to speak before you. I 
would be too much embarrassed in your presence. 
Besides, I shall be obliged to say some hard things 
about the clergy." 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



27 



*' Well, Patrick, my boy," said his uncle kindly, 
" it is not I who shall stand in the way of your suc- 
cess. I will go back home. But you would best 
let the clergy alone. You will get the worst of 
It. 

And the good old man returned to the carriage, 
and was driven away. 

Then Patrick saw his father making his way 
through the crowd. He had quite forgotten that 
his father would be the judge at the trial. His 
heart seemed to come into his throat. Yet there 
was no help for him. The people were filling the 
court-room, and the doorway, and all the win- 
dows. 

He squeezed through the packed room. There, 
in front, in a black robe, sat his father on a high 
bench, and before him sat twenty clergymen in 
one long row. And there were the twelve jury- 
men, who should bring in a verdict. It was a 
great moment for the young lawyer. 

When he arose to speak, he looked shabby and 
awkward. His words came slowly. He hesitated 
and almost stopped speaking. The planters hung 
their heads. One whispered, '' We should have 



2 8 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 

known better than to put the case in the hands of 
that shiftless fellow! " 

The clergymen on the bench lifted their eye- 
brows, and winked and nodded to one another, as 
much as to say, " Our case is already won." 

Judge Henry nearly sank from the bench in con- 
fusion at his son's poor speaking. " Ah, Patrick, 
Patrick," he thought, *' you have failed on the farm 
and in the shop, and now you are going to fail at 
the law, and the wife and wee bairns at home will 
be wanting for food! " 

But soon Patrick's voice became clear. The 
long, awkward body straightened up. The blue 
eyes flashed. He looked grand and majestic. 

The crowds outside the windows, who had begun 
to laugh and talk, were silent. Those at the door 
leaned eagerly forward to see the speaker. 

He told about the poverty of the people, and 
the taxes they had paid for the war with the 
French. 

He dwelt on the failure of the tobacco crop, and 
on the struggles of the poor farmers to keep their 
families from starving. 

Then he pictured how Christ had fed the poor, 



THE S TOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 29 

and walked among the weak and the lowly of the 
earth. 

And then, in scorn and anger, he pictured the 
many clergymen of Virginia who lived in fine 
houses, and feasted and drank while they were 
trying to take the last bit of bread from the tables 
of the poor. 

His words were awful to the twenty clergymen. 
They shrank back in dismay. 

Then the young lawyer stood like a lion at bay 
as he talked of the rights of the people. 

He said the king of England had given the pro- 
vince of Virginia the right to make its own laws 
about the taxes. The House of Burgesses had 
passed a law providing for the use of paper instead 
of tobacco in payment of the clergy. This law, he 
said, was made to protect the poor from the oppres- 
sions of the rich. 

His voice rang out clear and strong, and his 
eyes flashed strangely as he said that even a king 
had not the right to declare void a law made by the 
people. 

" When a king becomes a tyrant," he cried, '* he 
forfeits all right to obedience! " 



30 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



Some who heard him looked frightened at such 
bold words. But as the speech went on, Patrick 
became more and more eloquent. He won the 
hearts of all. His father, the judge, forgot where 
he was, and tears streamed down his cheeks. 

When the last words were uttered, the twelve 
jurymen went out. They soon brought back the 
verdict of one penny damages! 

The clergymen had hoped to obtain several hun- 
dred dollars. They had lost their case, and they 
fled in anger and disappointment from the court- 
room. But the planters shouted the name of their 
young lawyer. They bore him out on their shoul- 
ders and set him down in the yard where all might 
shake his hand. 

And, for many years in Hanover County, if any 
one chanced to make a fine speech, the highest 
praise he could receive was that he was " almost 
equal to Patrick when he pleaded against the 
parsons." 

VII. — The Stamp Act. 

After his victory over the clergymen, Patrick 
Henry had all the business he could attend to. 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 3 1 

Whoever got into trouble hastened to ask the 
young lawyer to help him get out of it. 

His fees increased. He soon became so rich 
that he loaned money to his father, and then he 
loaned to Sarah's father. 

He could not throw off his old habits at once. 
He still loved to hunt and to fish. Sometimes he 
was away in the forest whole days at a time. 

Sometimes he came into the court-room with his 
gun in his hand and his buckskin clothes red with 
the blood of the deer he had killed. But he 
studied hard and read a great deal of history, and 
talked much with the people as he traveled about 
from court to court. 

Now just at that very time there was good reason 
for talking. The king and his Parliament were 
beginning to make trouble. They saw the colonies 
getting richer and richer. 

Ship after ship came over the sea laden with furs, 
wheat, tobacco, and rice from America. Even cot- 
ton was beginning to be profitable. 

'' Those colonies across the sea shall be taxed," 
said the king. 

So Parliament, with the king's advice, made a 



3 2 THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR V. 

law that required all legal papers in America to be 
stamped. If a man made a deed of his farm, or 
wrote out a will on his death bed, or got a license 
to marry, he had to use stamped paper bought in 
England. The price to be paid for the paper was 
much greater than the cost of it, and thus a large 
tax might be collected. 

The Americans said that they alone had the 
right to vote a tax. They were willing to vote 
for a tax, but Parliament should not do it for 
them. 

Almost all the colonies sent petitions to the king 
against the Stamp Act. The province of Virginia 
sent a petition signed by George Washington and 
many others. But the king gave no answer. 
What should be done ? 

If the tax were paid once, it would have to be 
paid twice. 

" We must fight the law," said someone. 

" But most of the burgesses are the mere tools of 
the king," said another; "let us elect Patrick 
Henry a burgess. He is bold and will defend our 
rights." 

And so it came about that Patrick Henry was 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



33 



sent to the House of Burgesses to speak for the 
people of his county against the oppressions of 
the king and his Parliament. 



VIII. — In the House of Burgesses. 

It was a fine day in May when Patrick Henry 
came into Williamsburg to sit in the House of 
Burgesses. 

No one paid the least attention to the young 
man in homespun as he rode along on his lean 
horse. There was too much else to think about. 

The king had not listened to any petitions. The 
Stamp Act had become a law, and everybody on 
the streets was wondering what the burgesses 
would do. 

When the House assembled, some of the 
burgesses said there should be nothing done until 
the other colonies were heard from. 

Others said that, because the Stamp Act was now 
a law, it was best to obey it. And then the most of 
them sank back in their seats as if the question 
were settled. 



34 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



But Patrick Henry rose to his feet. He looked 
very tall and awkward. He held in his hand the 
yellow leaf of an old law book, on which he had 
written some resolutions. 

These resolutions declared that if a law was 
unjust it should be opposed; that the Virgini- 
ans had a charter from the king granting the 
rights of English subjects; that English subjects 
had the right to tax themselves, and so the 
Virginians had that right; and that whoever 
claimed that Parliament could tax the Virginians 
without their consent was an enemy to the col- 
ony! 

Those were very bold words to use about a 
law made by the king! 

The most timid of the burgesses fairly trembled 
with fear as they listened. 

Then Patrick Henry made a great speech. 
Nothing like it had ever been heard in Wil- 
liamsburg. 

It was all against the unjust tax, and he closed it 
with flashing eye, saying: "Caesar had his Brutus, 
Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the 
Third"— 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



35 



"Treason! treason! " shouted the friends of the 
king. 

" And George the Third," he repeated, " may 
profit by their example — If that be treason^ make 
the most of it!'' he cried in tones that echoed 
through the hall. 

Thomas Jefferson, the law student, who was 
in the lobby, almost cheered aloud when he 
heard the brave words. 

George Washington, who sat with the burgesses, 
nodded his head; and so many others believed 
what Patrick Henry had said that the bold resolu- 
tions were adopted. 

From that day Patrick Henry, the most elo- 
quent man in Hanover County, was called the 
most eloquent man in Virginia. 



IX. — The Continental Congress. 

The Virginia resolutions against the Stamp 
Tax were carried to the colonies in the North. 
They were published in New England and 
scattered all over the country. 



36 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



The governor of Massachusetts wrote to the 
king's council: " I thought that the Americans 
would submit to the Stamp Act. But the Virginia 
resolves have proved an alarm bell." 

And General Gage, the commander of the 
British forces, wrote from New York: ''The Vir- 
ginia resolves have given the signal for a general 
outcry all over the continent." 

People now began to speak out more boldly. 
The Virginians declared they would not wear 
clothes bought in England until the tax was 
removed. 

And when the rich planters went about clad in 
homespun, Patrick Henry looked quite as well as 
the best of them, and he talked much better than 
any. 

After a time the king abolished the stamp 
tax, but he straightway put a tax on tea. 
Now, taxed tea was just as bad as taxed paper. 
People said they would not drink tea. And soon 
a swift courier rode into Williamsburg, saying that 
Boston had thrown the tea chests of the British 
merchants into the harbor. 

Then another came in haste saying, that the king 



THE S TOR y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 37 

had shut up the port of Boston. The British gen- 
eral would not even allow a little shallop to enter 
the bay, and he kept his soldiers standing in the 
streets of the city with their bayonets fixed. 

When the House of Burgesses met and ordered 
a day of fasting and prayer for the trouble that 
had come upon Boston, Patrick Henry spoke more 
boldly than ever against the tyranny of the king. 

Governor Dunmore ordered the burgesses to 
separate. They hurried to meet again at Raleigh 
Tavern. Here they appointed a committee to write 
to the other colonies about what should be done. 
There was much writing back and forth between 
the North and the South. 

Many said there should be a convention to form 
a union of the colonies. But, in our forefathers' 
day, as in our own, there were some men who did 
not believe in experiments. 

A member of the South Carolina legislature 
laughed at the idea of a convention: *' What kind 
of a dish will a congress from the different British 
colonies make?" he said. "New England will 
throw in fish and onions, the Middle States flax- 
seed and flour, Maryland and Virginia will add 



38 THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

tobacco, North Carolina pitch, tar, and turpentine, 
South Carolina rice and indigo, and Georgia will 
sprinkle the whole composition with sawdust. That 
is about the kind of a jumble you will make if you 
attempt a union between the thirteen British pro- 
vinces." 

But another member retorted: "I would not 
choose the gentleman who made these objections 
for my cook, but I venture to say that, if the 
colonies proceed to appoint deputies to a Conti- 
nental Congress, they will prepare a dish fit to be 
presented to any crowned head in Europe." 

At last the colonies agreed to choose delegates 
to meet in convention at Philadelphia. 

The Virginians chose Peyton Randolph a dele- 
gate for his dignity, George Washington for his 
military knowledge, Richard Henry Lee and 
Patrick Henry for their eloquence, Edmund Pen- 
dleton for his knowledge of law, Richard Bland for 
his skill in writing, and Benjamin Harrison for 
his popularity with the planters. 

And so we see that Patrick Henry was chosen 
with the richest men in Virginia to go to Phila- 
delphia to attend the first Continental Congress. 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



39 



The young lawyer was very busy for several 
weeks getting his affairs in order before starting 
on so long a journey. 



X. — The Speech in Carpenters' Hall. 

On a hot day in August, 1774, Patrick Henry 
and Edmund Pendleton set out for Philadelphia. 
They traveled on horseback over a bridle path 
through the forest, and swam all the streams. 

At length they came to Mount Vernon, where 
Colonel Washington lived. Here they passed 
the night, and the following morning, after an 
early breakfast, Washington mounted his horse to 
go with them to Congress. 

As the two guests, with their three-cornered 
hats in their hands, were bowing low to Martha 
Washington, she said, '' I hope you will both stand 
firm. I know George will." 

And you may be sure they started off more de- 
termined than ever to demand justice of the king. 

They soon crossed the Potomac at the Falls, and 
then followed the path toward Baltimore. They 



40 THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

were a noble group of men. Edmund Pendleton 
was much the oldest. His hair was gray and his 
face was earnest. 

George Washington was in the prime of man- 
hood. He sat his horse like a true cavalier, and in 
the uniform of a British colonel he looked like a 
soldier. 

Patrick Henry was thirty-eight years old. The 
great orator stooped forward as he rode, and his 
clothes hung loosely about him. He was not very 
handsome, but when he spoke his face lighted up, 
and you would have said he was almost beautiful. 

They talked very earnestly over the troubles 
with the king, and all three agreed that a crisis 
had come. They reached Philadelphia just in time 
for the convention; and so they did not become 
acquainted with many of the members from the 
other colonies before the meeting began. 

After the delegates had assembled in a large 
brick building, called Carpenters' Hall, the roll 
was read and officers were elected. Then the 
place became very still. The delegates were 
almost all strangers to one another. Each feared to 
say anything lest he might offend some one else. 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



41 



At last a member moved to open the conven- 
tion with prayer. John Jay, of New York, hurried 
to oppose the motion. " No man," he said, *' can 
expect Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregational- 
ists, Episcopalians, Quakers, and Catholics to 
unite in worship." 

But Samuel Adams, from "stiff-necked" Massa- 
chusetts, arose and said: " I, for my part, am no 
bigot. I can listen to a prayer from a gentle- 
man of piety who is a patriot. I have heard 
that the reverend Mr. Duch^, an Episcopalian, 
deserves that title; therefore, Mr. President, I 
move that Mr. Duche read prayers to-morrow 
morning." 

The motion was carried. And then again the 
place became very still. Each man had the same 
complaints to make against the king, yet no one 
liked to speak of them. 

The silence became so intense that some said 
afterwards they could hear their hearts beat. 

At last a tall young man arose. Everybody turned 
about to look at him. He was dressed in dark 
grey homespun, his wig was unpowdered, and 
his sleeves had no frills. 



42 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

He began very calmly to state why they had met 
together. But soon his voice swelled, his form 
became erect, his eyes glowed. All leaned for- 
ward to read his wonderful face. He closed with 
the words : " The distinctions between Virginians, 
Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Engend- 
ers are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an 
American!" 

The delegates were amazed at his eloquence. 

** Who is he? who is he? " they cried. 

It was Patrick Henry, and from that day the best 
orator in Virginia was known as the best orator in 
America. He argued with the rest of the dele- 
gates not to import any more goods from England 
nor to export them to England until Parliament 
should respect the rights of Americans. 

Henry spoke many times during the Congress; 
and when it was decided to appeal again to the 
king to allow the colonies to vote their own taxes, 
he was one of the committee chosen to write the 
petition. 

Soon after this the first Continental Congress 
adjourned to meet when the king should send his 
reply. 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK- HENR Y. 



43 



XI. — Taking up Arms against the King. 

When Henry reached home, the neighbors 
crowded around him, asking many questions about 
the city of Philadelphia and the people whom he 
had met there. 

'* Who was the greatest man there?" asked one. 

'* Always excepting yourself, Patrick, " shouted 
another, laughing, " I'll warrant you were the great- 
est of all!" 

Henry told them about the city that William 
Penn had built, and about the famous men who 
were at the congress. 

There was Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, who 
"never said a foolish thing in his life." There was 
Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, whose " head was 
wanted badly in England;" and his cousin John 
Adams, who " had forty towns in the Bay Colony 
at his back." 

There was John Rutledge, of South Carolina, 
who was "by far the greatest orator of them all," 
with his brother Edward, who had learned fine 
manners at the court of the king, but had become 
a patriot while listening to the debates in Parlia- 
ment on the tea tax. 



44 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



There was Philip Livingston, of New York, whose 
letters to Edmund Burke had won that great 
English orator to the American cause; and there 
was John Jay, whose "pen was the finest in 
America." 

"Of course, you know all about our own men," 
he said. "Everybody made much of Richard Henry 
Lee, for they had heard how he made a bonfire of 
the stamps ; and Peyton Randolph was elected 
chairman of the convention. But for solid infor- 
mation and sound judgment," said Henry, "Colonel 
Washington was the greatest man in the Congress." 

Now, the king gave no heed to the petition of 
Congress. He sent over a fleet of ships and an 
army to aid General Gage in making war on the 
colonies if they would not obey the law. 

The second Virginia convention met in St. John's 
church, in Richmond, on the 2nd of March, 1775. 

Patrick Henry moved in a convention that Vir- 
ginia be put in a state of defence. 

Many opposed doing this. They said it was the 
duty of every man to obey the king. 

And so the Virginians were divided in opinion. 
Those who were loyal to the king were called 



THE STORY OF PA TRICK HENRY. 



45 











i0iSS^ 



46 THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

tories, and those who refused to obey his unjust 
laws were called whigs. 

Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas 
Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and many others 
were whigs ; but there were also many powerful 
men who were tories. When the tories opposed 
the motion to defend the colony, Patrick Henry 
made a wonderful speech. 

'* We must fight," he said. ** An appeal to arms 
and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us. They 
tell us, sir, that we are weak! But when shall we 
be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next 
year? Will it be when a British guard shall be 
stationed in every house? 

"Sir, we are not weak. Three millions of people 
armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a 
country as that which we possess, are invincible by 
any force which our enemy can send against us. 

" Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. 
There is a just God who presides over the destinies 
of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight 
our battles for us. 

" Gentlemen, we may cry peace! peace! but there 
is no peace. The next gale that sweeps from the 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



47 



north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding 
arms. Our brethren in Boston are already in the 
field. Why stand we here idle? 

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- 
chased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid 
it, Almighty God! I know not what course others 
may take, but, as for me, give me liberty or give 
me death! " 

The faces of all were pale. The tories were 
quaking with fear at the thought of having taken 
part in such a meeting. 

But Lee and Jefferson spoke in favor of arming 
the colony, and Washington nodded his head, 
though he said nothing. 

In the end it was voted to take up arms against 
the king's troops. 

Meanwhile, the battles of Concord and Lexing- 
ton were fought, near Boston. About the same 
time Governor Dunmore seized the powder at 
Williamsburg and sent it on board a British ship. 

The whigs armed themselves. They rallied 
about Patrick Henry, and set out for Williams- 
burg to demand the powder. 

Tories along the march begged Henry not to 



48 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

plunge the colony into a war with the governor. 
But he pushed on his way, and the whigs joined 
the ranks, until over five hundred were in line. 

Governor Dunmore fled from the city. Very 
soon after, however, he sent a promise to pay for 
the powder he had carried away. 

Then Patrick Henry disbanded the army and 
started for Philadelphia to attend the second Con- 
tinental Congress. His friends, fearing the 
governor might have him arrested, mounted their 
horses and rode with him to the Potomac River. 
As he was ferried across to the Maryland side, 
they gave cheer after cheer and wished him 
success on his journey. 



XII. — The Declaration of Independence. 

When Henry arrived at Philadelphia, the Con- 
gress was already In session. 

One of the new delegates was Benjamin Franklin, 
of Pennsylvania, who had just returned from Lon- 
don and knew all about the king and his Parliament. 

Another new delegate was John Hancock, of 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 49 

Massachusetts, who told of the battles of Concord 
and Lexington. 

The very day that Henry took his seat news 
came from the north that Colonel Ethan Allen had 
captured Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, with a 
large amount of arms and ammunition. 

It was decided that the colonies must be put in a 
state of defence. 

There was much to be done. Ships were to be 
built, cities on the coast to be fortified, treaties 
made with the Indians, and more appeals sent in to 
the king. It was agreed to raise troops from all 
the colonies, and George Washington was made 
commander-in-chief of the colonial army. 

Patrick Henry was glad that his friend had been 
honored with such a high office. 

Yet he knew that it was a great risk to head a 
rebellion against the king. 

Washington knew this, too. He wanted to be 
loyal to the king, but he felt he must fight for the 
rights belonging to all English subjects. 

His eyes were full of tears as he clasped Henry 
by the hand and said: " I fear this day will begin 
the decline of my reputation." 



50 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



He soon left Philadelphia to take command of 
the American troops at Cambridge. 

When Congress was adjourned, Henry and 
the other delegates from Virginia returned home 
to meet in a convention. 

The governor had fled to a British ship, and so 
a committee was appointed to rule in his stead. 
Then it was decided to raise troops in the colony, 
and Patrick Henry was made commander-in- 
chief. 

Soldiers hurried from every county in Virginia 
to the camping ground at Williamsburg. There 
were trappers in buckskin, and hunters in green 
shirts, and rich planters in fine uniforms. There 
was the sound of fife and drum, and banners were 
seen everywhere. Governor Dunmore called the 
whigs rebels, and summoned tories, negroes, and 
Spaniards to fight them. 

But before the troops came to battle, Patrick 
Henry resigned command. He was needed in the 
colonial convention at Williamsburg. 

The convention met on the 6th of May, 1776. 

Among the new delegates was James Madison. 
He was just twenty-five years old. He was a great 



THE S TOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 5 1 

scholar, but he was so shy that he did not attract 
much attention in his first debate. 

Another new delegate was Edmund Randolph. 
He was twenty-three years old. His father was a 
tory, and had sailed away to England, but young 
Randolph remained in America to help fight for 
liberty. 

James Madison and Edmund Randolph listened 
with delight to Patrick Henry's speeches. 

They said he seemed like a pillar of fire, which 
was leading the convention through the night of 
despair. 

When the orator proposed that the colonies 
should declare themselves free from Great Britain, 
most of the delegates were convinced that this was 
the only thing to do. 

And so, on the 15th of May, the Virginians 
resolved to instruct their delegates in Congress 
at Philadelphia to propose a declaration of inde- 
pendence. 

The British flag was taken down from the 
staff on the capitol, and a Continental flag was 
hoisted with thirteen bars for the thirteen colo- 
nies. 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



Then Patrick Henry and some others wrote out 
a constitution for the state of Virginia. 

You know that every state in these days has a 
written constitution, but in those days most of the 
states had charters granted by the king. 

It was agreed that Virginia should have a Senate 
and a House of Representatives to make the laws 
which the people wanted, a governor who should 
enforce the laws, and judges who should preside in 
the courts. 

The constitution of Virginia seemed so wise that 
it became a model for the other states. 

On June 7th, Richard Henry Lee, one of the 
Virginia delegates, offered the resolution in Con- 
gress that the *' United Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent states." 

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and after a long debate it was signed on 
the 4th of July, 1776. 

And when the news reached Williamsburg, bells 
rang, bonfires blazed in the streets, and powder 
sizzed and spluttered in the gutters. It was 
the very first Fourth of July celebration in Vir- 
ginia. 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 53 

XIII. — The First Governor of the State of 
Virginia. 

The Declaration of Independence was read from 
the steps of the governor's mansion at Williams- 
burg. Now, who do you think was governor? It 
was Patrick Henry. He had been elected before 
the news of the great event had reached Virginia. 
There he was in the mansion of the king's gov- 
ernors. He had won the first place in the state by 
his own merit. 

His father and his wife, who had helped him in 
all the struggles on the farm and in the shop, were 
dead. But his aged mother, whom he loved very 
tenderly, was living to see his success. 

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and 
other whig friends wrote him beautiful letters of 
greeting in his new office. 

But the tories laughed when they heard that 
Patrick Henry was elected governor. *' A pretty 
governor he Vv^ill make," they said, '' with his buck- 
skin breeches and homespun coat ! " 

But Governor Henry wished to represent the 
people as well as Lord Dunmore had represented 
the king. He wore a powdered wig and black 



54 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 



velvet clothes, and long silk hose, and shoes with 
silver buckles, and in cold weather he wore an 
ample scarlet coat. 

He did not walk the streets with his dog and gun 
any more, but rode in a carriage drawn by four 
horses, and saluted the people as gracefully as the 
king's governors had done. The people were very 
proud of their governor, and he was so kind and 
gentle that everybody loved him. 

After a time he married the beautiful grand- 
daughter of Alexander Spotswood, who had once 
been the king's governor of Virginia. This made 
the rich planters respect him more than ever. 

There was much for Governor Henry to do. 
The tories were plotting mischief in the state, and 
the war in the North was raging. 

General Washington wrote again and again to 
Governor Henry, asking him to send more men 
and more supplies, and he always sent them when 
he could. 

In October, 1777, when the British General Bur- 
goyne surrendered to the American army at 
Saratoga, New York, he said the Virginia regi- 
ment was the finest in the world. 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 55 

But about that very time Washington, the pride 
of all the regiments, was defeated on the Brandy- 
wine, in Delaware. No one grieved over this mis- 
fortune more than Governor Henry. He hurried 
to send food and clothing to Washington's army. 

Then he sent George Rogers Clark with a regi- 
ment to the far West to capture the forts held by the 
British north of the Ohio River. The Indians were 
awed and the forts were taken from the British. 

If this expedition had failed, the country which 
makes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wis- 
consin, Michigan, and a part of Minnesota might 
to-day belong to Canada. And so these states 
have much for which to remember Patrick Henry. 

Now, according to law, a governor might only 
be elected three times in succession. When 
Henry's third term had expired, Thomas Jefferson 
was elected governor, and the great orator retired 
to his estate among the Blue Ridge Mountains. 



XiV. — The Close of the War. 

It is quite certain that Patrick Henry would 
have strapped on his knapsack to fight for his 



56 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

country if he had not been needed to help make 
the laws. He was elected to the legislature to 
help provide means to carry on the war. 

The British armies had failed in the North. 
So they came marching into Virginia to cap- 
ture the South. They burned and plundered the 
towns on the coast. The people fled to the moun- 
tains. 

The legislature kept moving from one place to 
another for safety. 

One day the British General Tarleton was hur- 
rying with his troopers to arrest the lawmakers. A 
Virginian captain, who saw him from the window 
of a tavern, mounted his horse and rode by the 
shortest way to Charlottesville. He burst into the 
room where the legislature sat, crying, ** Tarleton 
is coming! " 

There was a rush for three-cornered hats. The 
lawmakers decided, as they ran, to meet at Staun- 
ton, beyond the mountains. 

They mounted their horses and fled in different 
directions. 

It is said that as Patrick Henry, Benjamin Har- 
rison, Judge Tyler, and Colonel Christian were 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 



57 



hurrying along, they saw a little hut in the forest. 
An old woman was chopping wood by the door. 
The men were very hungry, and stopped to ask 
her for food. 

" Who are you? " she asked. 

" We are members of the legislature," said 
Patrick Henry; ''we have just been compelled to 
leave Charlottesville on account of the British." 

" Ride on, then, ye cowardly knaves! " she said 
in wrath. " Here are my husband and sons just 
gone to Charlottesville to fight for ye, and you 
running away with all your might. Clear out! 
Ye shall have nothing here." 

** But," replied Mr. Henry, " we were obliged 
to flee. It would not do for the legislature to be 
broken up by the enemy. Here is Mr. Benjamin 
Harrison; you don't think he would have fled had 
it not been necessary?" 

" I always thought a great deal of Mr. Harrison 
till now," answered the old woman, '' but he'd 
no business to run from the enemy." And she 
started to shut the door in their faces. 

''Wait a moment, my good woman," cried, Mr. 
Henry; " would you believe that Judge Tyler 



5 8 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

or Colonel Christian would take to flight if there 
were not good cause for so doing?" 

" No, indeed, that I wouldn't." 

*' But," he said, '' Judge Tyler and Colonel Chris- 
tian are here." 

"They are? Well, I would never have thought 
it. I didn't suppose they would ever run away 
from the British; but since they have, they shall 
have nothing to eat in my house. You may ride 
along." 

Things were getting desperate. Then Judge 
Tyler stepped forward: *' What would you say, my 
good woman, if I were to tell you that Patrick 
Henry fled with the rest of us? " 

" Patrick Henry! " she answered angrily, " I 
should tell you there wasn't a word of truth in 
it! Patrick Henry would never do such a cow- 
ardly thing." 

" But this is Patrick Henry," said Judge Tyler. 

The old woman was astonished; but she stam- 
mered and pulled at her apron string, and said: 
"Well, if that's Patrick Henry, it must be all 
right. Come in, and ye shall have the best I have 
in the house." Even this ignorant woman in 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 59 

the woods had heard of the courage and patriot- 
ism of Patrick Henry. 

The legislature met again at last, and took meas- 
ures to collect soldiers and supply food, clothing, 
and arms to fight the British. 

The next year Washington himself came down 
from New York, and a French fleet, sent over by 
King Louis the Sixteenth of France, entered 
Chesapeake Bay. Lord Cornwallis, the British 
general, was hemmed in on all sides. He surren- 
dered his army ; and soon the British soldiers and 
many tories sailed away and left the American 
colonies to govern themselves. 

Three years later General Washington and Mar- 
quis de Lafayette visited Virginia. The state wished 
to do great honor to the commander-in-chief of the 
American armies and to the young French noble- 
man, who had fought for liberty. And so Patrick 
Henry was chosen to make a speech of welcome. 

The French general did not understand the 
English language very well; but when he saw the 
glowing eyes and the speaking face, and heard the 
rich tones of the orator's voice, he said Mr. Henry 
was a wonderful man. 



6o THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 

XV. — The Constitution of the United States. 

The very next day after this great speech of 
welcome to Washington and Lafayette, Patrick 
Henry became governor of Virginia again. There 
were many grave questions to be solved. What 
should be done with the tories? That was one of 
the questions. 

" Tar and feather them! " cried some. 

" Welcome them and all other subjects of Great 
Britain," cried Governor Henry. " The tories 
were mistaken, but the quarrel is over. We have 
peace again. Let us lay aside prejudice. These 
people who sided with the king are intelligent 
and industrious. We need men and women 
to help make a strong nation. Let all come who 
will." 

When some wanted to keep English ships out of 
the harbors, that the French and other friendly 
nations might trade more with us, Governor 
Henry said: "No! Why should we fetter com- 
merce? Let her be free as the air, and she will 
return on the wings of the four winds of heaven to 
bless our land with plenty." 

Thus the great man pleaded liberty for all. 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 6 1 

After serving faithfully for two years as governor, 
he began -again to practice law in the courts. 

The soldiers of the Revolution had been paid in 
promises on paper by the Continental Congress. 
They needed money so badly that they could not 
wait for Congress to pay, and sold the promises at 
low prices to speculators. 

When Patrick Henry favored the passage of a 
bill in the legislature to prevent the sale of the 
paper at such low prices, one of the speculators 
was so influenced by his eloquence that he 
exclaimed, " That bill ought to pass!" although its 
passage would spoil his own profits. 

Now, since the war with England was over, it was 
clearly seen that the United States of America 
could not make a good government without a 
more permanent union. There was no president. 
Congress w^as disbanding. Soon there would be 
no government at all. 

The colonies agreed to hold a convention at 
Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confedera- 
tion which had kept them together during the war. 

Patrick Henry was appointed a delegate, with 
George Washington, James Madison, and others; 



62 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

but his health was too poor for him to take the 
long journey. 

The convention at Philadelphia adopted the 
Constitution of the United States as we have it 
to-day, without the amendments. 

Eight States soon agreed to the Constitution. 
Would Virginia ratify it? Everybody said that 
New York and the rest of the states would act 
with Virginia. 

General Washington sent Patrick Henry a copy 
of the Constitution, and urged him to persuade the 
people to adopt it. 

Now, we have seen that, when the king was 
oppressing the colonies with taxes, Patrick Henry 
was one of the first to propose a union. But he 
thought the new plan of government gave too 
much power to Congress and the president. He 
said there should be amendments to the Constitu- 
tion, so that the states might have more free- 
dom. 

No one had ever known a government without a 
king, and it was very difficult to suit everybody. 

There was a long debate in a convention at 
Richmond, All the other colonies watched eagerly 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 63 

to see if Virginia would agree to the new plan of 
union. Mr. Henry urged the amendments. 

At last the Constitution of the United States was 
ratified by Virginia, with the recommendation that 
amendments should be adopted when they seemed 
necessary. And some of the very amendments 
proposed by Patrick Henry were afterwards 
adopted by Congress. 

To-day the Constitution has fifteen amendments, 
which have helped to make our government the 
best in the world. 



XVI. — ''The Sun Has Set in All His Glory." 

After the Constitutional Convention at Rich- 
mond, Patrick Henry continued to practice law in 
the courts. 

He rode from place to place on horseback or in 
an old gig; and at the taverns where he stopped he 
was always surrounded by an admiring crowd. 

Wealth came. He bought many plantations and 
prospered greatly. 

Then, as the years bent his shoulders and 



64 T^HE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 

wrinkled his high brow, he retired to the quiet of 
an estate, called Red Hill, on the Staunton River. 

The hospitable house stood on a slight rise of 
ground, surrounded by groves of oak, pine, and 
walnut trees. 

Below it stretched the green valley, with its 
winding stream and gently sloping hills. In the 
distance towered the lofty peaks of the Blue 
Ridge. 

In full view of this beautiful scene, the noble 
man sat often in a great armchair under the shade 
of a spreading walnut tree, or walked from grove 
to grove as he talked with himself. No one inter- 
rupted him then; but when the hour of solitude was 
over his grandchildren gathered around with a 
shout. 

There were frolics on the grass, where the silver- 
haired grandfather was the noisiest of the merry- 
makers. And he often told stories, while the little 
ones listened with breathless attention, or he made 
his violin mimic the birds, while the joyous band 
about him vied at guessing which songster was a 
prisoner in the instrument. 

Nothing tempted the great orator from this 



THE STOR V OF PA TRICK HENR Y. 65 

delightful retreat of his old age. Virginia elected 
him governor for a sixth term, but he firmly 
refused the honor. His friend Washington, who 
had become President of the United States, asked 
him to be Minister to Spain, and then he asked him 
to be Secretary of State, and then to be Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court ; but he would 
listen to no offers of high place. 

When John Adams became President, he urged 
Mr. Henry to go as an envoy to France, but he 
refused. The years lay heavy on his shoulders 
because of ill-health. Besides, he had won laurels 
enough. 

In January, 1799, a letter came from Mount Ver- 
non, marked " Confidential!' It was in the hand- 
writing of George Washington. 

Just at this time several states claimed the right 
to declare void some laws made by Congress. The 
laws were not wise, and many in Virginia said it 
was the duty of the legislature to refuse to obey 
them. 

Washington implored Patrick Henry to speak in 
defence of the government of the United States. 

Now, the great orator did not like the laws very 



66 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 

well himself ; but he said, when an Act of Congress 
became a law, it was the duty of every citizen to 
obey it. He agreed to tell the people what he 
thought about it. 

It had been many years since Patrick Henry had 
spoken in public; and when it was noised around 
that he would speak at Charlottesville court-house, 
people flocked in from all over the country to hear 
him. 

The college in the next county closed for a 
holiday, and president, professors and students 
hurried to find standing room in the court-house. 

Before the hour for the meeting, such crowds 
followed the orator about that a clergyman said> 
to rebuke them: " Mr. Henry is not a god! " 

" No," said Mr. Henry, who was deeply moved 
because the people were so devoted to him; *' no, 
indeed, my friends, I am but a poor worm of the 
dust." 

When the great orator arose to speak, he seemed 
stooped with age. His face was pale and care- 
worn. 

At first his voice was cracked and shrill, and 
his gestures were feeble; but soon his bowed 



THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 67 

head became erect, his blue eyes glowed, his 
features looked like those of a young man, his 
voice rang out like music to the farthest listener 
of the thousands standing in the courtyard. 

He told them they had planted thorns in his 
pillow, and that he could not sleep while Virginia 
was a rebel to the government of the United 
States. The Virginians had dared to pronounce 
the laws of Congress without force. Only the 
Supreme Court of the United States had the right 
to do that. 

He said they would drive the United States 
government to arms against them to enforce her 
rightful authority; and, because they were too 
weak alone, the Virginians would call in the Span- 
iards, or the French, or the English, from over 
the sea, to help them fight against the government 
of the United States, and then these foreign 
powers would make them slaves. 

He asked if Charlotte County had the right to 
defy the laws of Virginia. Then he showed them 
how Virginia belonged to the United States, just 
as Charlotte County belonged to Virginia. 

" Let us preserve our strength united," he said, 



68 THE STOR Y OF PA TRICK HENR V. 

** against whatever foreign nation may dare to enter 
our territory." 

The vast multitude hung on each word and 
look. When he had finished his magnificent 
speech, he was very weak; and as he was carried 
into the tavern near by, some one said, '' The sun 
has set in all his glory." 

He returned to his home. A few weeks later, 
while sitting in his chair, he died. 

Just before the end came, he prayed aloud in a 
clear voice for his family and for his country- 
When he breathed for the last time, his old family 
physician left his side to throw himself down under 
the trees and sob aloud. And everybody who 
had known the brave, generous, and gifted Patrick 
Henry grieved over his loss. • 

A marble slab covers his grave, inscribed with 
the name, the birth, and the death, and the words: 
*' His fame is his best epitaph." 

Before the year closed, George Washington died 
also, and there was mourning throughout the 
land for these two great patriots, who had done so 
much for Virginia and for the young republic of 
the United States. 



THE STORY OF 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



70 



THE STORY Oh ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 




THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



L — The Orphan Boy of Nevis. 

In the British West Indies there is a little island 
called Nevis. The cliffs along its coast are high, 
and the waves beat against them day and night. 

A hundred and fifty years ago there were more 
French than English people in Nevis ; but the 
English were hurrying as fast as they could to 
occupy the island, because it was so fertile and 
was such a fine shipping station. 

Among the merchants who went there to try 
their fortunes was James Hamilton. He was a 
Scotchman by birth. His people were distin- 
guished, and he himself was a generous and agree- 
able gentleman. 

Everybody liked James Hamilton; he prospered 
greatly in his new home, and married a beautiful 
French lady, and they had several children. Then 
the children died, one by one, until all were gone 
except the youngest son. 

7^ 



72 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



This boy was born on January ii, 1757, and he 
was named Alexander, after his grandfather in 
Scotland. He was a winsome baby; he had fine 
linen and silken garments, and it was said that he 
had an easy life before him. 

Very soon, however, Alexander's father lost all 
his money, and could hardly keep his family from 
starving ; but the beautiful French mother was 
always cheerful and gay, and tried to make the 
child happy. She took long walks with him in the 
sunshine ; and when his little legs were tired with 
tramping over the sand, she sat down by him on 
the white beach and told him stories in her own 
French language. 

One day this loving mother became very ill; then 
she died, and Alexander saw her carried away and 
buried by the side of his little brothers and sisters ; 
but he never forgot his mother, nor the language 
she taught him to speak. 

When he first went to school, he was so small 
that he stood on the table by the side of his teacher 
while learning the Ten Commandments. He did 
not go to school very long, because his father had 
no money to pay for his teaching. 



THE STORY OI' ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



73 



When he was only twelve years old, he was sent 
to the island of Santa Cruz to clerk in the counting- 
house of Mr. Nicholas Cruger. There were rows 
of desks in the counting-house where clerks were 
busy writing, and iron chests where money was 
kept, and scales where workmen weighed bags of 
sugar, boxes of indigo, and bales of cotton ; and 
outside the wide doors stood carts and wheelbar- 
rows to carry the merchandise to the waiting ships 
in the harbor. 

Alexander was very busy in the counting-house. 
He wrote down the long lists of goods for the 
ladings, and the dates when the ships sailed, and 
when they came back to port again. His master, 
Mr. Cruger, was a thrifty merchant. " Method is 
the soul of business," he often said, as he bustled 
about the counting-room. 

Alexander did not like clerking very well ; he 
wrote to a young friend in Nevis : *' I would 
willingly risk my life, though not my character, to 
exalt my station." 

Those were brave words for a boy of twelve 
years, were they not? He would not risk his char- 
acter to improve his fortune! 



74 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



I think you will find that Alexander Hamilton 
always prized his character more than life itself. 

Now, although he did not like his work, he did 
not shirk it. He was so diligent that, when only 
fourteen years old, he was left in charge of the 
counting-office while his employer was absent in 
Boston. 

He was small for his age ; he must have looked 
like a child playing at keeping store as he went 
about with a quill pen over one ear, taking note of 
what the other clerks did. Some letters still exist 
which he sent to Boston, telling how the business 
was getting along ; they are neat and exact ; they 
must have pleased his employer very much. 

When the duties of the day were over, Alex- 
ander studied in books which he borrowed from 
his friend, the Rev. Mr. Knox. He was fond of 
arithmetic and history, and he liked to read the 
lives of the great men who have helped to make 
the world better and happier. 

Now, just about this time, a hurricane swept 
down upon the Leeward Islands ; ships were 
tossed upon the rocks by the wind, trees were torn 
from their roots, and villages were lifted up and 



THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 7 5 

thrown into the raging sea. It was all so terrible 
that the bravest men fled in terror into the caves ; 
but Alexander was not afraid; he watched the 
storm from a high ledge of rocks, and he thought 
it was so grand that everybody should know just 
how it looked; so he wrote all about it, and sent 
the account to a newspaper. 

When people read it, they were astonished at 
the language. The description of the hurricane 
was so beautiful that many who had hidden in the 
caves wished they had stayed in the open to 
watch it. 

Who on the island could write so well? Nobody 
knew. The governor set to work to find out ; and 
when he learned that the pale little clerk in the 
counting-house was the author, he said that such a 
bright boy should have an education. 
' Now, people were so eager to contribute money 
for this that Alexander soon had enough to pay 
his expenses at school for several years ; then, 
because there were no good schools in the island, 
it was decided to send him to one of the large 
cities in America. 

And so, clad in a new suit of clothes, Alexander 



7 6 THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

Hamilton climbed the gang plank of a British 
packet bound for Boston. The sailors shouted; 
the ropes were drawn up; there were hands waving 
farewell, and soon the tall cliffs of the island 
were lost in the mists of the sea. 



II. — The Voyage. 

When the vessel had left the land behind, 
Alexander began to look about him. He soon 
knew the sailors by name, and they all grew very 
fond of him. His best friend was a Scotch pilot 
who had been in service for many years. This 
old pilot told Alexander how King George of 
England had sent armies across the sea to help 
the Americans fight the French. 

"Those Frenchmen wanted the earth," he said. 
" They first wanted the coast of Maine, and then 
they wanted the beaver lands on the great river 
called the Ohio. And never a bit would they let 
the British trade for the furs of the Injuns. Every 
man knows that the land belonged to the king; 
and his majesty sent over the pick of his armies 
to fight for it." 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



11 



Then he told how the French forts on the Ohio 
had been taken by the British General Forbes and 
a "likely American lad" by the name of George 
Washington, and how the forts along the St. 
Lawrence had been seized by the brave General 
Wolfe and his army; and how, at last, the British 
had gained the great fresh water lakes in the 
north, and all the land along the Ohio. 

The old man had his own ideas about the 
people who lived in the colonies 

"I cannot well make out these Americans," he 
said. " They're a headstrong lot, laddie. They've 
made trouble from the first; and, now they've had 
a hand fighting the French, they're pesky ready 
to fall upon the king's troops sent over to keep 
them in order." 

And while the old tar pulled away at his wheel, 
he told how the Americans would not consent to 
be taxed by Parliament; how Patrick Henry, a 
bold young man in Virginia, had defied the king 
in open meeting about a stamp tax, and how Bos- 
ton and other cities had refused to buy any more 
goods from British merchants till the tax was 
taken off. 



78 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



" It makes bad shipping business, laddie," he 
groaned; ''and it's all bad from the beginning of 
it, and I know you'll say so yourself when you 
see the carryings on. 

'* They call themselves ' Sons of Liberty,' and 
have big meetings on the green, and they do a 
power of speaking and reading newspapers instead 
of smoking their pipes and keeping the peace. 

" Last year, at Boston, when the king's troops 
stood in the streets to keep the rascals quiet, 
the folk came and hooted at them, and would 
not go home; and the troops fired the guns, and 
killed two or three of the men. 

" And Samuel Adams, a very bold man, with the 
whole town at his back, ordered the king's troops 
out of Boston. Think of that, laddie ! 

" The king's officers wanted orders from the 
king before they put the bayonets to the throats 
of the villains; so they took the troops to an 
island in the harbor; and there they are to-day, 
keeping close watch on the town. I think we'll see 
their bayonets shining when we sail up the bay." 

Alexander made up his mind that the Ameri- 
cans must be very wicked indeed. On the island 



THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. -j g 

of Nevis, no one said a word against the great 
king of England who sat on a throne. 

Alexander learned all he could about the Amer- 
icans. He was almost afraid to go to a country 
where men were bold enough to defy King 
George's grenadiers. 

The ship plunged slowly along towards his new 
home. 

One night he heard the cry of '* Fire! fire! " He 
ran to the hatchway. The deck was in a red glare 
of light. The sailors were running to and fro with 
buckets of water. Everybody thought the vessel 
would be destroyed, but at last the fire was put out. 

A few days later, the ship passed an island 
where long lines of soldiers in red coats were 
marching. The bayonets gleamed in the sun- 
shine, and the voices of the captains rang over 
the water as they gave their commands. 

'* There they are, sure enough, laddie," said the 
old Scotch pilot. " The king's troops are waiting, 
and watching the town of Boston!" 

And when Alexander saw the steeples of the 
city, he wondered if the king's troops would ever 
march again into Boston with their bayonets fixed. 



8o THE STOR Y OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

III. — "The Little West Indian." 

Alexander Hamilton landed at Boston on a 
bright day in October, 1772. He had only time to 
look about the docks. Then he took a packet for 
New York, where he intended to go to school. 

When he reached New York, he hunted up 
some clergymen, to whom he gave letters from his 
friend, Mr. Knox. These gentlemen received 
him with much kindness, and advised him to go 
to the grammar school at Elizabethtown, in New 
Jersey. 

Before very long, Alexander was hard at work. 
He soon had many friends in Elizabethtown. 
Governor Livingston welcomed him to his home, 
and he often spent his evenings reading in the 
governor's library. 

Once, when the baby of a lady friend died, he 
watched all night by the little casket. The room 
was lighted dimly with one candle, and as he sat 
alone such beautiful thoughts came to him about 
the dead child that he wrote them out in verse. 
The next morning he gave the verses to the sad 
mother. They comforted her very much. 

At the end of one year, Alexander had been so 



THE STOR Y OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 8 1 

diligent in the grammar school that he was ready 
for college. He went to see the president of 
Princeton College. He told him he was anxious 
to finish his studies as soon as possible, and 
asked to be allowed to double the work outside 
of the class. 

The president declared that no such thing had 
ever been done, but promised to talk with the 
officers about it. He soon wrote Alexander that 
it had been decided to refuse his request. " But 
I am convinced," he said, ''that you will do honor 
to any seminary in which you may be educated." 

Alexander returned to New York. He entered 
Columbia College, which was then called King's 
College. Here he was so witty and amiable that 
he made many friends. He wrote a play, which 
the British officers acted, and he joined a debating 
club where the students talked much about the 
troubles with the king. 

Alexander remembered what the old Scotch 
pilot had said about the Americans, and at first he 
always debated on the king's side. 

But one time, I do not know why, he went up 
to Boston. Perhaps it was to attend to some 



8 2 THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

business for his old employer at the counting- 
house. He found Boston in great excitement. 
A few nights before, the people in that city had 
met together to talk about the tax which Parlia- 
ment had put on tea. They said they would not 
buy taxed tea, and that the ships in the harbor 
must take it back to England; but the king's 
governor would not send the tea back. Then 
some of the men dressed themselves like Indians, 
and hurried down to the harbor. They climbed 
up the sides of the ships and threw the tea over- 
board. 

Now, the people knew very well that they would 
be punished for this bold act. Every night they 
held great public meetings. You maybe sure that 
Alexander Hamilton attended all the meetings 
while he was in Boston. 

He heard Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James 
Otis, and other patriots speak. 

They said they were willing to pay taxes if 
they might vote like the freemen of England; but 
not a single American was allowed to sit in Par- 
liament, and so Parliament had no right to tax 
Americans. 



THE STOR Y OF ALEXANDER HA MIL TON. 83 

They said, if one tax were paid, many more 
must be paid; and, if the people dared to resist 
the law of Parliament, British troops would soon 
be placed in every town. 

They said they were willing to obey a king, but 
they would not obey a tyrant. 

The more Alexander listened to the talks of 
these great men, the more he admired them. He 
even found himself clapping his hands and cheer- 
ing with all the rest when they cried, " No taxa- 
tion without representation! " 

And when he returned to New York, he would 
not defend the king's laws any more. He argued 
in debate on the side of the patriots. 

He often walked under the shade of a grove of 
trees, talking low to himsel'f. And when the 
neighbors passed by, they pointed him out and 
said, "There is the little West Indian, who makes 
such fine speeches in King's College." 



IV. — " The Vindicator of Congress." 
Not long after young Hamilton's return to New 
York, news came that the king and his council 



84 THB STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

had closed the port of Boston. British soldiers 
had marched into the city with bayonets fixed. 
They would not allow an American vessel in the 
harbor, not even a fishing smack. 

The trade of the merchants was ruined. More 
than half the people were without work, and hun- 
dreds would starve if food were not sent overland 
from the other towns on the coast. 

There was great excitement in New York over 
this news from Boston. On a hot afternoon in 
July a crowd of people met on the green to talk 
about it. 

Many spoke; but a slender boy, who sat listen- 
ing, thought they had left out some very important 
arguments. He stepped to the front. His face 
was pale. He was so small that he looked like a 
child; yet his voice rang out clear and strong, and 
he spoke with so much elegance that people were 
amazed. "Who is he?" they asked. It was 
Alexander Hamilton, only seventeen years old. 
"Ah, the wee lad," said one; "he is bigger than 
he looks!" 

The excitement about the taxes continued until 
all the colonies agreed to meet in a convention at 



THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 8 5 

Philadelphia. This convention was called the 
Continental Congress. The delegates decided to 
resist the taxes to the bitter end. 

Then the people were divided into two parties. 
Those who were willing to obey the king's unjust 
demands were called tories, and those who re- 
fused to obey them were called whigs. 

And whigs and tories were talking from morn- 
ing till night. Some New York merchants met 
together at the coffee-house to consider their con- 
dition. 

They said that all they had was on the sea. 
Prosperity depended on trade, and the Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia must not hurt trade 
with England by opposing the king's laws too 
much. They said that everybody must be cau- 
tious. 

Now, Alexander Hamilton was at this meeting. 
He felt that to keep up trade at the expense of 
liberty would destroy trade in the end, and he 
decided to tell the merchants what he thought. 

He mounted a chair. Smiles were seen about 
the room. Someone said: ''What brings that 
child here? The poor boy will disgrace himself." 



8 6 THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

But the two years in the counting-house had 
taught the Httle West Indian more about British 
trade than most of the merchants knew. He made 
one of the very best speeches of the evening. He 
urged sympathy with Congress, and so pleased 
the rich men that they shook hands with him. 
They said he would be a great man some day. 

Now, Dr. Cooper, the president of Columbia Col- 
lege, was a tory, and wrote a letter in a newspaper 
against the Continental Congress. 

Alexander Hamilton replied to Dr. Cooper with 
much wit. He signed his letter, " A Sincere Friend 
to America." The letter was well written. Every- 
body wanted to read it. The demand for the news- 
paper was so great that the printer could not 
publish it fast enough. " Who is this ' Sincere 
Friend to America' ?" men asked on the streets. 

Some said it was Governor Livingston. Others 
said that only John Jay, the eloquent lawyer, could 
have written such a fine letter. Dr. Cooper said it 
must be John Jay, and he was so angry about it 
that he would not speak to him on the streets. 

And all the time young Hamilton was laughing 
to himself about their bad guessing ! 



THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 8 7 

Some collegians had seen the letter before it was 
published, and told, at last, who the " Sincere 
Friend to America " was. Then people admired 
the " Little West Indian " more than ever. They 
said he would some day be an honor to New York, 
and they called him the '* Vindicator of Congress." 



V. — '' The Little Lion." 
Not long after that, a battle was fought at Lex- 
ington, near Boston. 

Everybody saw that there must be a war. Con- 
gress called on all the colonies for volunteers, and 
appointed George Washington commander-in-chief 
of the American army. General Washington soon 
drove the British out of Boston, and hurried 
away to prevent them from taking New York. 

Then King George sent over a great fleet with 
cannon and armed men. Some of the men were 
Hessians. They could not speak a word of Eng- 
lish, yet they were hired by the king to fight his 
English subjects. This made the Americans more 
angry than ever. They said that a king who would 
do such a thing as that was not worthy of obe- 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



dience, and that the colonies should not be a 
part of England any more. The Continental 
Congress signed the Declaration of Indepejidence, 
and then war with England began in real 
earnest. 

Meanwhile, Alexander Hamilton was studying 
how to build forts and drill soldiers. When it 
was known that the British fleet was coming against 
New York, he joined a company of volunteers. 
They called themselves *' Hearts of Oak," and 
made a very brave showing indeed in their 
green uniforms and leather caps, with *' Freedom 
or Death " on the bands. 

It became necessary to remove some cannon from 
the battery. The " Hearts of Oak " agreed to do 
it. As they stood on the shore, pulling and tug- 
ging at a heavy gun, the British fired at them from 
the ships. A comrade fell dead at Hamilton s side; 
but the young men stood their ground, and the 
gun was at last removed to safety. 

Now, when the people in the city heard this 
firing from the British ships, they rushed into the 
streets, crying: " Down with the tories !" " Down 
with the hirelings of the king ! " And one of the 



THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 8 9 

first men they wanted to hang was Dr. Cooper, the 
president of Columbia College. 

You remember that this was the tory whom 
Hamilton had opposed in the newspapers. Yet 
Hamilton knew that it would be a wicked thing 
to seize a defenseless man. 

He was tired and heated from his work with 
the gun; but when he saw the angry mob surging 
toward the president's house, he hurried to it by a 
short street, and stood on the steps. 

He told the people they were bringing disgrace 
on the name of liberty. He thought he would keep 
on talking in a very loud voice until the president 
might escape by a back door. 

Dr. Cooper could not believe that Hamilton was 
generous enough to defend him. He thought he 
was down there on the front steps inciting the mob 
to burn his house. So he looked out of the win- 
dow and called: " Don't listen to him, gentlemen; 
he's crazy ! he's crazy !" 

At last, the old scholar learned the truth, and 
escaped through a back door to a British man- 
of-war which lay in the harbor. 

At another time, while the mobs were rushing to 



9 O THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

destroy the printing presses of the tories, Hamil- 
ton again interfered. He said the rights of all cit- 
izens should be protected, and begged the frantic 
men to respect the law. 

Soon after this, Hamilton was made captain of 
an artillery company. 

He was very proud of his company. He spent 
all his money to equip his men, and trained them 
until they were the best soldiers in New York. 

One day, as they were at drill, loading and un- 
loading the big guns, taking them apart, putting 
them together again, and running with them back 
and forth, who should pass but Washington him- 
self ! The great general stopped at the drill 
ground to watch the artillery company. 

He was so pleased with the bright face and the 

commanding tones of the little captain that he 

.asked who he was; and then he slowly passed on, 

repeating to himself: " Alexander Hamilton, the 

'Vindicator of Congress ! ' " 

Another day the great commander-in-chief rode 
by as Hamilton was constructing some earth works 
at Fort Washington. He stopped his horse and 
watched the little engineer. And when he saw 



THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 9 1 

that it was the captain who had drilled the artil- 
lery company so well, he invited him to his tent. 

They had a long and delightful talk together. 
Young Hamilton sat on a camp stool answering 
questions ; he was so modest and intelligent that 
he quite won the heart of Washington ; and from 
that very day a friendship began between George 
Washington and Alexander Hamilton such as few 
men ever know. It was a friendship that lasted 
till death. 

Some time you will read all about the war 
between the British and the Americans. I can 
only mention a few of the battles in this little 
book. 

The king's troops seized New York. Then they 
followed Washington's army up the Hudson, and 
there were several engagements. Hamilton was 
always in the thickest of the fight. At Fort 
Washington he held the enemy back with his guns 
for a time; and when they had captured the fort, he 
hurried into the presence of Washington and pro- 
posed to re-capture it vv^ith his company. As he 
stood there with his cocked hat in his hand, he 
looked very eager and impatient to hurry to the 



92 THE STOR Y OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

task. But the prudent general thought the risk 
was too great, and ordered a retreat. 

Hamilton soon won the name of the '* Little 
Lion" by his boldness. He gloried in fighting 
for liberty. It is said that as he marched along 
beside his cannon, with his hand resting on the 
barrel, he patted and stroked it as if it were a 
favorite horse. 

Washington kept on retreating toward Philadel- 
phia. His army was poorly clothed and half fed 
and only numbered about three thousand men. 
Following after it came the great British army, 
under Cornwallis. There were over eight thou- 
sand soldiers in scarlet and gold, with banners fly- 
ing and music playing ; they were certain of vic- 
tory. 

When Washington reached the Raritan River, 
Cornwallis was close behind ; but Hamilton 
planted his cannon on a high ledge of rocks 
above the ford of the river, and kept back the 
red coats until the rear of the ragged Americans 
was safe. 

The " Little Lion " was soon rewarded for his 
pluck ; he was appointed aide-de-camp and private 



THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 9 3 

secretary to General Washington, and he was 
given the rank of lieutenant-colonel ; that was a 
proud day for Alexander Hamilton. 



VI. — Washington's Aide-de-camp. 

When General Washington received Colonel 
Hamilton into service as his private secretary, he 
said : " It will be a hard place to fill ; I take no 
amusement for myself, and am busy from morning 
till night ; I shall expect my secretary to be always 
at my side, ready to do his duty." 

" I shall be prepared, your Excellency, to do 
your slightest bidding," answered Hamilton ; and 
he kept his word. He wrote letters to the gover- 
nors of the colonies for recruits, and to the com- 
missaries for food and clothing ; he wrote so much 
and so wisely that it was said, " The pen of the 
army is held by Hamilton." 

He rode to Congress with secret despatches ; he 
took orders to the different American generals, 
and, after a battle, he went to the camp of the 
British to treat for the exchange of prisoners. 



94 I^HE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

General Washington trusted him completely and 
fondly called him " my boy." 

Hamilton was then twenty years old, and Wash- 
ington was forty-five. 

At the battle of Brandywine, the young aide-de- 
camp rode to the front in the greatest danger to 
watch the enemy ; he carried despatches from one 
general to another. When his horse was shot 
under him, he hurried forward on foot. 

After the terrible battle was over, the defeated 
American army retreated to Westchester. Ham- 
ilton rode all night by the side of the silent com- 
mander-in-chief. It was a sad night; the stars 
seemed to be mocking as they twinkled in the 
sky. 

It was certain that, after their victory at Brandy- 
wine, the British would occupy Philadelphia ; and 
so, before they might reach there, Hamilton was 
sent to the city to ask for blankets, clothing, and 
food for the American army. He wrote such a 
charming letter to the ladies of the '' Quaker City " 
that they gladly gave what they could, and his 
wagons were loaded and driven away before the 
drum beats of the British were heard. 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 95 

Then Washington's army went into winter quar- 
ters at Valley Forge. 

Now, the people who stayed at home were 
getting very tired of the war. Their fields were 
overrun by both armies, and their towns were 
burned by the enemy. 

The British general issued a proclamation offer- 
ing pardon to all who would swear allegiance to 
the king. He said that the property of faithful 
subjects would be spared, but the homes of the 
"rebels" should be burned to the ground. 

Very many whigs were frightened into being 
tories; and when they had once become tories, 
they wanted the king's troops to conquer. They 
knew very well that if the Americans won, they 
themselves would be forever disgraced. And so 
they plotted to defeat them. 

Then some of the American generals became 
jealous of Washington. They tried to remove 
him from command. But Hamilton was always 
watchful, and found out their schemes in time to 
prevent any harm. 

Hamilton was loved by the soldiers in camp. 
Those who lay wounded waited for his coming, 



gS THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

because he knew so well how to bandage their 
shattered limbs, and could write such beautiful 
letters to their loved ones at home. 

Hamilton was popular with the officers, too. 
He was so genial and frank that they did not 
envy him his high favor with the commander-in- 
chief. 

Among the officers was the Marquis de Lafay- 
ette. He was a Frenchman of noble birth, who had 
given up all the pleasures of the French court at 
Paris to help the Americans fight for liberty. 
But he did not understand the English language 
very well. Now, Hamilton had never for- 
gotten the French language he had learned 
from his mother. And so Lafayette and Ham- 
ilton became great friends, and talked much 
together as they sat before the camp fire at 
Valley Forge. 

Another of Hamilton's friends was the Baron 
von Steuben, a German, who also talked French. 
The sturdy old general drilled the awkward 
squads of continental soldiers, and he saw with 
delight how eager young Hamilton was to master 
the rules of war. 



THE STOR Y OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 97 

VII. — Hamilton the Patriot, and Arnold the 

Traitor. 

The war of the Revolution went on, year after 
year. Sometimes the Americans and sometimes 
the British were victorious. 

After a time, the French king, Louis XVI., sent 
over a fleet to help the Americans. 

Then the most of the British army marched to 
the South. They hoped that the tories and the 
negroes would rally to their aid. 

But the British General Clinton tarried in New 
York. He had great plans about enlisting the 
French and Indians of Canada to conquer the 
North. " If only I might get possession of West 
Point! " he said. 

Now, West Point was the strongest fort in the 
colonies. Its frowning walls guarded the Hudson 
River. The British general knew very well that 
he could not bring the armies from Canada 
unless he controlled the Hudson River. 

It is sad to relate that General Clinton found a 
traitor in the American army who was willing to 
betray West Point for gold! 

Benedict Arnold was a brilliant young soldier 



98 THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

from Connecticut. He was so brave that he was 
promoted to the rank of major-general, and, after 
the British had retreated from Philadelphia, he 
was placed in command of the city. 

When Arnold married the beautiful daughter 
of a rich tory, he wanted to make her happy; but, 
as we shall see, he really made her the most 
miserable lady in the world. 

He began to live like a prince, in the great 
mansion that William Penn had built. He gave 
balls and fine dinners, and rode in a coach-and- 
four. But he needed more money to live so 
well. 

" I will take money belonging to the army," he 
said, " and then I will pay it back as soon as I can. 
No one shall ever know anything about it." So 
he spent the money of the army. It was easy for 
such a high officer to get all the money he 
wanted. 

At last Arnold spent more than he could ever 
pay back. His dishonesty was discovered. He 
was tried in court and found guilty, but his 
bravery had been so great that his punishment 
was made as light as possible. 



THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 99 

Arnold seemed soon to forget his disgrace. He 
still gave large dinners at the elegant home in 
Philadelphia. Perhaps his rich father-in-law gave 
him money for this. 

After a time he begged to be appointed com- 
mander of West Point, and was placed in charge 
of the great fort that guarded the Hudson River. 
Alas! he had already plotted to betray it to the 
British! 

At midnight, in a lonely spot, he met Major 
Andre, the agent of General Clinton. Only the stars 
looked down upon him as he told how the fort 
might be seized if the British would pay him gold. 

Soon after this, while Arnold was completing 
his plot, General Washington came to West Point 
with General Lafayette and Colonel Hamilton. 
He sent word to Arnold that he would make him 
a visit. Washington was delayed by some offi- 
cers, and Hamilton rode with his apology to Mrs. 
Arnold. 

Breakfast was served. Hamilton was charmed 
with the wit and grace of Mrs. Arnold, but he 
saw that Arnold was gloomy and silent. Indeed, 
the traitor was very wretched. He feared Wash- 



lOO THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

ington's unexpected visit to the fort might spoil 
all his plans. 

While he sat toying with his fork and trying 
in vain to be gay, a swift messenger arrived. He 
whispered in the traitor's ear that Major Andre 
had been arrested and a map of West Point found 
in his boot. 

The unhappy man excused himself from the 
table. He called his wife to another room. He 
explained to her that his fortunes were ruined, 
and, mounting his horse, he fled. 

Hamilton lifted the fainting wife from the floor, 
called a servant to care for her, and then has- 
tened to General Washington. Washington sent 
him with all speed to cut off the traitor's retreat; 
but Arnold was already safe in a British ship. 

Major Andre was hanged as a spy. Arnold, 
the traitor, lived to put the torch and the sword 
to many towns of his native land. 

*' Whom shall we trust now?" asked Washington 
sadly, as he thought of Benedict Arnold. But we 
know that Washington trusted Alexander Ham- 
ilton, and we shall see that his trust was never 
betrayed. 



THE STOR Y OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. lOI 

VIII. — The Lawyer. 

Colonel Hamilton met and loved Elizabeth 
Schuyler, the daughter of General Schuyler, one of 
the richest men in New York. Their marriage 
increased the young officer's reputation and added 
much to his social position. 

Very soon after marriage, Hamilton resigned 
his place as aide-de-camp to General Washington, 
on account of a misunderstanding. It happened in 
the following way : One day, Washington passed 
Hamilton on the stairs and said, " I would like to 
speak with you, Colonel." 

' I will wait upon your Excellency immediately," 
replied Hamilton, and went below to deliver some 
important letters to the postman. 

As he returned. General Lafayette stopped to 
speak with him. Hamilton was very impatient ; 
he talked rapidly, and finally left the Frenchman 
abruptly. He searched for Washington in his 
room; he was not there. 

At last he found him at the head of the stairs. 
The great commander-in-chief looked stately and 
severe. 

"Colonel Hamilton," he said, ''you have kept 



1 02 THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

me waiting these ten minutes! I must tell you, sir, 
that you treat me with disrespect." 

The face of the young aide-de-camp flushed as 
he heard the reproving words. 

*' I am not conscious of it, sir," he replied; "but 
since you have thought it necessary to tell me so, 
we part." 

" Very well, sir, if it be your choice," said Wash- 
ington. 

The two friends parted in anger. In less than an 
hour General Washington sent word to Hamilton 
that he hoped the misunderstanding might be for- 
gotten. Their friendship was continued. 

No doubt both men were deeply grieved over 
their hasty words. But Hamilton had already 
written out his resignation ; he felt he might find a 
greater field for work. He was soon placed in 
command of a regiment, and went to the South to 
join General Lafayette against the British. 

The war raged furiously all through the South. 
At last General Washington himself came from 
the North with his army. The British at York- 
town were surrounded by land and by sea. 

A siege was begun ; and then Colonel Hamilton 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



103 



distinguished himself by a very daring deed. 
Behind a high redoubt lay the guns of the British. 
Washington said the guns must be taken. Hamil- 
ton was named as the leader in an assault ; he 
placed his foot on the shoulder of a sentinel, and 
was the first to mount the wall ; he stood for a 
moment in full sight of the enemy's guns, calling 
aloud to his men. 

Then he sprang into the ditch below, followed 
by his devoted soldiers with bayonets fixed. He 
pressed on past the British sentinels, and, in nine 
minutes' time, the American flag was floating over 
the parapet. You may be sure that Washington 
was proud of his young friend. 

Very soon after this, the British surrendered 
to the American troops, and the long seven years' 
war was over. 

The British army sailed away ; Washington 
bade farewell to his ofificers, and retired to his 
home at Mount Vernon. 

Hamilton went to Albany to live. He began to 
study law ; in a few months he was able to pass his 
examinations, and was admitted to the bar. 

Now, before the war most of the lawyers were 



1 04 THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

tories ; and after the war they were not allowed 
to practice in the courts. Thus it came about that 
Hamilton found a large field for his new profes- 
sion. He soon had more cases than he could 
attend to. 

There was only one lawyer in the state of New 
York who seemed to be his equal ; this was Aaron 
Burr, a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the great 
preacher of New England. 

Burr was a year older than Hamilton; he was 
handsome and brave, and elegant in his manners. 

He had been in the war, and was once a mem- 
ber of Washington's staff. 

Washington disliked Burr, and did not keep 
him long in his service. 

Almost everybody admired him, but very few 
trusted him, because he was dishonorable in his 
dealings with men. 

It often happened that Burr and Hamilton were 
on different sides in a question of law. Sometimes 
one and sometimes the other won the case at 
court. 

People began to say that the two young law- 
yers would soon be rivals in politics. 



THE STOR Y OF ALEXANDER HAMIL TON. \ 05 

IX. — The Statesman. 

Not long after Hamilton began the practice of 
law, he was elected a member from New York to 
the Continental Congress. Here he did what he 
could. 

But the old Continental Congress had served its 
purpose ; it had done very well for war ; it would 
not do for peace. There was no President ; there 
was no Supreme Court. Even the Congress itself 
was without any real authority. The little states 
were jealous of the big states, and the delegates 
were going home, one by one. Everybody said 
there would soon be no Congress at all. 

Now, just at this very time there was more need 
of a strong government than ever before. 

The paper dollars which Congress had issued 
were refused in payment of debts. People said 
the dollars were *' not worth a continental," which 
meant they were not worth anything at all. 

Indeed, everything continental seemed worth- 
less. The Continental Congress had borrowed 
money from France, Holland, and Spain, and 
these countries clamored in vain for their 
pay. 



1 06 THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

The continental flag could not protect American 
commerce; the pirates in the Mediterranean Sea 
plundered the American ships, and British sailors 
boarded them; and the Spaniards at New Orleans 
refused to allow the Mississippi River to be navi- 
gated by Americans. 

The continental army was disbanded; and when 
Congress taxed the states to raise some money, 
there were riots everywhere. 

The kings of Europe began to rejoice at the 
distress of the Americans. "See," they said to 
their subjects, "see what a ridiculous spectacle a 
republic makes of itself ! A kingdom is a firm and 
stable government; a republic is the rule of a mob." 

England said that if the republic were only let 
alone it would fall to pieces of its own weight, and 
soon one state after another would be knocking at 
the door of Parliament to ask protection against 
her neighbors. And so King George kept his 
troops in the forts along the St. Lawrence. He 
hoped to win his colonies back again. 

Hamilton urged Congress to call a convention 
of delegates from all the states to agree upon a 
better plan of government. 



THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 1 07 

Now, there was so much quarreling in Congress 
that Hamilton could get little attention, and he 
soon resigned his office to practice law. But he 
watched and waited for the time when he might 
again propose a convention. 

At last he was sent as a delegate to a commer- 
cial meeting at Annapolis. Here he urged his plan 
for a more perfect union. James Madison, of Vir- 
ginia, helped him, and it was decided to ask Con- 
gress to call a convention to revise the articles of 
confederation. 

Congress agreed to do this; and so, in May, 1787, 
a convention met at Philadelphia to form a perma- 
nent union between the states. 

It was a noted body of men. There was George 
Washington, the hero of the Revolution; Robert 
Morris, the great merchant prince, who had 
almost spent his fortune that the armies might be 
fed; Benjamin Franklin, who had just returned 
from the court of the French king; Edmund Ran- 
dolph, who had refused to sail away in a tory ship 
with his father; and James Madison, who would 
one day be President. 

There were governors, lawyers, and merchants 



1 08 THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

among these delegates at Philadelphia, but among 
them all none was more ready for work than Alex- 
ander Hamilton. 

He had a plan of government already formed in 
his own mind, and wished to persuade the rest to 
adopt it. 

George Washington was elected president of the 
convention, and then the debates began. 

Now, all agreed that there should be a union of 
the states, but there were many different opinions 
about what this union should be. 

Some wanted a government with each state 
independent, except in time of war. Others 
wanted a government with all the states firmly 
united. A few, who had been made timid by the 
riots, declared that only a king could keep peace. 

The convention lasted four months, and the 
debates were loud and long. Many times the 
meeting was almost broken up, and the talk grew 
so bitter that Franklin moved prayer be said 
every morning. 

Hamilton was kept very busy. Once he spoke 
five hours without stopping. He proposed a strong 
government, with a President, a Congress, and a 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



109 



Supreme Court, much as we have it now. Some 
day, in a larger book, you will read all about it. 

In the end, the Constitution of the United States 
was written and signed. Washington's name was 
first on the list. The great general held his pen in 
his hand as he said: '' Should the states reject this 
excellent Constitution, the probability is that an 
opportunity will never again offer to cancel 
another in peace. The next will be drawn in 
blood." Franklin said: ''I consent, sir, to this 
Constitution because I expect no better, and 
because I am not sure it is not the best." 

No one has told what Hamilton said, but we can 
see his name standing out, firm and clear, on the 
yellow parchment which lies under glass in the 
capitol at Washington. 

After the Constitution was properly signed by 
the delegates, it was submitted to the old Conti- 
nental Congress. The Congress agreed to let the 
states say whether they wished to adopt the new 
government. 

If nine states adopted it, a union would be 
formed. All the states called conventions to con- 
sider the question. 



no THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

X. — The Federalist. 

Of course, the people were sure to disagree 
about the new Constitution. Governors in the 
states did not like to have a President who 
would be greater than they. Militias in the 
states did not want to be at the beck and call 
of a President who would be their commander- 
in-chief. Judges in the states did not care to 
have their decisions appealed to a supreme court. 
Merchants did not choose to allow a Congress 
to put taxes on the goods they imported from 
Europe. 

And so there was a great deal of talking. 

Those who favored the Constitution were called 
federalists, and those who opposed it were called 
anti-federalists. 

Some great patriots were anti-federalists. Pat- 
rick Henry of Virginia was an anti-federalist, 
because he feared the President and Congress 
might take liberty from the people. 

Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, was an anti- 
federalist, because he feared one government 
could not hold so many states together. 

Now, this old patriot had much influence. 



THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 1 1 1 

People said Massachusetts would vote against 
the Constitution if Samuel Adams did. 

But some workingmen met in the Green Dragon 
Tavern in Boston. It was their opinion that if 
the Constitution was not ratified their trades would 
be ruined. A committee bore their resolutions 
to Samuel Adams; and Paul Revere, who had 
aroused the sleeping towns for the battle of Lex- 
ington, handed him the paper. 

" How many mechanics were at the Green 
Dragon? " asked Adams. 

'' More, sir, than the Green Dragon could hold," 
answered Paul Revere. 

" And where were the rest, Mr. Revere? " 

" In the streets, sir." 

" And how many were in the streets? " 

'' More, sir, than there are stars in the sky." 

And because Samuel Adams had faith in the 
judgment of the industrious workingmen, he 
resolved from that moment to be a federalist. 

Nothing that anybody could say changed the 
mind of Governor George Clinton, of New 
York. He opposed the Constitution with all his 
might. 



112 THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

Alexander Hamilton urged the adoption of the 
Constitution. He wrote, with John Jay, of New 
York, and James Madison, of Virginia, a series of 
essays called the Federalist. The Federalist 
explained the new plan of government. 

It had great influence all over the country. 
But there were so many anti-federalists in New 
York that people said the state would never adopt 
the Constitution. 

There was talking from morning till night in 
the taverns and on the corners of the streets. 

Hamilton hardly slept or ate, he was so busy 
trying to persuade the people to agree to the Con- 
stitution. At last news came that eight states 
had ratified it. 

When the New York convention met to vote, 
there was the greatest excitement. Only one 
more state was needed to make the Constitution 
a law. Would New Hampshire vote for it? 
Would Virginia vote for it? Hamilton sent off 
couriers for reports from these two states. The 
days seemed very long. 

At last a courier came riding at full speed. 
" New Hampshire has ratified! " he shouted. 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



iI3 



"Hurrah!" answered the friends of the Constitu- 
tion, and they hurried to tell that the new govern- 
ment was established. 

Would New York join the union, or remain 
independent? Everybody was asking the ques- 
tion. Now, New York, at that time, was not so 
great in either wealth or population as Virginia, 
Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. But the state 
was very important, for all that. There it lay, 
dividing New England from the middle and 
southern states. You can see very well that, if 
New York had stayed out of the union, she might 
have been a troublesome neighbor to the United 
States of America. 

Hamilton argued in the convention while wait- 
ing for reports from Virginia. " Let others try 
the experiment first," said Governor Clinton and 
his friends. Everybody said that, if Virginia re- 
fused to ratify, New York would be sure to follow 
her example. 

It took a long time for news to come from far 
away Virginia. But at last a horseman brought 
tidings that Virginia, the *' mother of the colonies," 
had adopted the Constitution. 



114 ^^^ 5r0/? Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

''Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the friends of the 
Constitution. " What will our convention do 
now?" they asked. 

The excitement of the crowds outside the court- 
house waxed greater than ever. " Hamilton is 
speaking! " went from mouth to mouth. '' Hamil- 
ton is speaking yet ! He has changed more 
votes! " 

And when the news was carried to the people 
that their convention had ratified the Constitution, 
a shout went up all over the state. There was a 
holiday to celebrate the event. Cannons boomed, 
bells rang, and thousands marched in line in the 
streets of New York city. 

The portrait of Hamilton with the Constitution 
in his hand was carried in the parade; a small 
frigate, called the " Ship of State," bore the 
name Hamilton in large letters, and on the 
national flag were pictured the faces of Washing- 
ton and Hamilton. The celebration closed with 
a public dinner, where toasts were offered in honor 
of Hamilton. 

It was a proud day for the young federalist. 



THB STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. I 1 5 

XL — The First Secretary of the Treasury. 

The people of the United States had now much 
to do. There were the Congressmen to be elected 
in all the states, and there were electors to be 
chosen to name a President. 

George Washington, the hero of the Revolution, 
was elected President. 

New York was made the capital; and when 
Washington stood on the balcony of the city hall 
to take the oath of office, Hamilton stood by his 
side, among other distinguished men. 

When Chancellor Livingston exclaimed, " Long 
live George Washington, President of the United 
States!" cocked hats were tossed in the air, hand- 
kerchiefs fluttered, and above all waved the new 
flag of the Union, while thousands of voices 
shouted that the government had begun. 

Soon the President asked Robert Morris: "What 
is to be done about this immense war debt of the 
United States?" 

The great financier replied: " There is but one 
man in the United States who can tell you, and 
that man is Alexander Hamilton." 

And so, when Washington appointed his 



1 1 6 THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

Cabinet, he made Hamilton Secretary of the 
Treasury. 

As a member of the Cabinet, Hamilton had 
many social duties. He assisted at the President's 
levees and at the Friday evening receptions of 
" Lady Washington." The beauty and wit of the 
nation were there. The envoys from Europe stood 
about in brilliant uniforms; and the officers of the 
army and of the navy were there, with their 
swords and medals voted by Congress. But no 
man in all the throng was more observed than 
Alexander Hamilton. 

He generally wore a blue coat, a white silk 
waist-coat, black trousers to the knee, and long, 
white silk stockings. His powdered hair was 
combed back and tied in a cue. Although below 
middle size, he was erect and dignified. His brow 
was lofty, his face was fair, his voice was musical, 
and his manner was frank and cordial. 

But social duties were the least of Hamilton's 
duties. He was to restore the public credit at 
home and abroad and this must be done by rais- 
ing money to pay the national debt. 

Yet he knew very well that, if the people 



THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 1 1 7 

were taxed too much, they would rebel against 
the government. 

At last he persuaded Congress to put a high 
tariff on imported wares, and a tax on whisky 
and a few other home products. Then he had to 
oversee the collecting of the public money, and to 
pay it out again on the national debt. 

He proposed a National Bank, and, after much 
debate, the Bank of the United States was estab- 
lished at Philadelphia. Then he recommended a 
mint. There were few American coins. English, 
French, and Spanish coins were about all the 
money we had. Congress ordered a mint to melt 
gold, silver, and copper, and stamp it. 

People began to feel very proud of their country 
when they read "The United States of America" 
on the shining pieces of money. 

The nations of Europe soon treated the Ameri- 
can flag with more respect. They said the Repub- 
lic seemed like a young giant. But they said, too, 
that young giants stumbled more easily than any- 
body else. They would wait a while before they 
believed that the new government would be a 
permanent one. 



1 1 8 THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

Hamilton continued to labor in all the depart- 
ments of his office. He suggested laws for naviga- 
tion and the coasting trade. He established 
bureaus for the sale of the lands in the West. He 
founded the United States Post-office. He made 
a report on American manufactures, and urged a 
high tax on foreign manufactures to encourage 
the home products. 

And while he was toiling day and night, enemies 
attacked his character. They said he had used 
public money to bribe men for votes. A com- 
mittee investigated the treasury books, but found 
that every dollar was in its place. 

Hamilton was then more popular than ever; 
and when Washington was elected President for 
a second term, Hamilton was again chosen Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. 

In 1795 he resigned his office, and resumed the 
practice of law in New York city. He was only 
thirty-eight years old, yet he had served his country 
for nearly twenty years, and won the name 
of the " founder of the public credit." 

Many years after, Daniel Webster said: " Hamil- 
ton smote the rock of the national resources, and 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



119 




1 20 THE STOR Y OF A LEXANDER HAMIL TON. 

abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He 
touched the dead corpse of public credit, and it 
sprang upon its feet." Is not that high praise 
from a great orator to a great statesman? 



XII. — Inspector-General of the Army. 

Hamilton was urged by his party to accept the 
nomination for governor of New York. He 
refused the honor. He preferred to practice law. 
He soon bought a small estate on the north end 
of Manhattan Island, and built a hospitable house, 
which he called the Grange, after the mansion 
of his grandfather in Scotland. 

Here he was the center of a large circle of 
admiring friends. On another part of Manhattan 
lived Aaron Burr, his rival in politics and at the 
bar. Whatever Alexander Hamilton wished was 
sure to be opposed by Aaron Burr. 

But talent and industry kept Hamilton far in the 
front. By his practice in the courts, he grew more 
famous than ever. The rich and the poor brought 
their troubles to the great lawyer. It is said that 
Washington still sought his advice in national 



THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 1 2 1 

affairs ; and then, as the President completed his 
second term of office, Hamilton helped him write 
the Farewell Address. 

If you hear this famous Farewell Address read 
on Washington's birthday, perhaps you will think 
of Alexander Hamilton. 

Now, when John Adams, of Massachusetts, 
became President, trouble was already brewing 
between the United States and France. 

You remember how Louis XVI. sent a fleet to 
America to aid in the war against the British. It 
so happened that, very soon after, the king had a 
war with his own people. He was driven from his 
throne, and France became a republic. 

'* If one throne falls," said the other kings of 
Europe, " all thrones may fall ; we must not let the 
French establish a republic as the Americans have 
done " ; and so the kings united to fight France. 
Then the Directory, which was the name of five 
men who ruled the new French republic, called 
across the sea to the Americans : " We helped 
you," they said, "when you fought for liberty; 
come and help us." 

This was a stirring appeal. Republican clubs 



122 THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

were formed all over the United States ; they sang 
French songs and dressed after the French 
fashion. But while Washington was President, he 
had hesitated to take up arms against England ; 
he said the only two English-speaking nations on 
the globe should be friends. 

It seemed unwise to take part in the quarrels of 
Europe. Besides, it was King Louis who sent help 
to America, and the French mobs had cut off the 
head of King Louis. Washington declared the 
United States would take no part in the wars of 
France. 

When John Adams became President, he, too, 
said we should remain friends to all the nations of 
Europe. Then the French became very disagree- 
able ; they began to shoot at the flags on our ships. 
President Adams sent agents to Paris to try to 
arrange the difficulties ; but the French Directory 
insulted the agents, and ordered them out of the 
city. Of course, all the Americans were angry 
then. The Republican clubs took off their French 
badges, and quit singing French songs. 

The President and Congress prepared for war. 
Washington was appointed lieutenant-general of 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



123 



the army, with Hamilton his first major-general. 
Ships were built ; armies were collected and drilled. 
There was hurrying everywhere. Meantime, 
Napoleon had become the ruler in France; and 
when he saw that the Americans were so eager to 
defend their honor, he treated them with more 
respect. After a time, peace was made between 
France and the United States. 

Before peace had been concluded, the death of 
Washington caused mourning throughout the 
land. Hamilton became commander of the 
American armies, but he went about his duties 
with a very sad heart. 



XIII. — Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. 

When all danger of war was over, Hamilton 
began again to practice law. 

He withdrew more and more from public life. 
It is said that in the trial of his cases the great 
lawyer was almost always successful. 

Sometimes he spoke many hours, but no one 
wished to leave the court-room until he had fin- 
ished his speech. 



124 ^-^^ STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

Now, all this time Aaron Burr had been rising in 
power. He was crafty and revengeful ; he did 
what he could to blacken the character of Hamil- 
ton. When the term of John Adams drew to a 
close, Aaron Burr became a candidate for Presi- 
dent against Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia. 

Hamilton used his great influence against the 
election of Burr. He thought him a man without 
honor, and therefore unfit for the high office to 
which he aspired. 

When Jefferson was elected, Burr was very 
angry ; he said that Hamilton had caused his 
defeat. 

Then, when Burr wished to be governor of 
New York, he was defeated again. He was more 
angry than ever ; he laid all the blame of failure 
on Hamilton ; he brooded over his evil thoughts. 

How might he get rid of this powerful man who 
stood in his way ? He decided to kill him ; but he 
said he would not, like a common murderer, kill 
him in the night; he would challenge him to fight a 
duel. 

It is said that Burr trained his hand at shooting 
targets until he never missed his mark. When 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



125 



he was sure that he would not fail he sent a chal- 
lenge to Hamilton. 

In those days a duel was a common way to settle 
disputes. Hamilton had lost a dear son in a duel. 
He thought the custom of dueling was wrong ; yet 
he knew very well that, if he did not accept the 
challenge, he would be called a coward. 

"If war should ever break out again," he said, 
" who would trust a man in command, if he had 
ever been called a coward?" 

And so he accepted Burr's challenge, but he 
asked that the duel be put off until he had finished 
his cases in that term of court. He did not wish 
others to suffer loss if he died. 

The days went by ; the great lawyer pleaded his 
cases, and attended to all his duties as usual. 

Once, at a public dinner, when urged to sing his 
favorite song, he arose to his feet and sang the 
patriotic verses, one by one. 

Just across the table sat Aaron Burr. His eyes 
were fixed on the glowing face of the singer. He 
whispered to himself : " It is the last time that the 
people of this nation shall listen to the voice of 
Alexander Hamilton." 



126 THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

XIV.— The Duel. 

At dawn, on the eleventh day of July, 1804, the 
duel took place. The two men, with their seconds, 
met on the Jersey shore at Weehawken, opposite 
New York. Hamilton had said he would not fire 
the first round; he did not wish to kill his enemy. 
They measured paces. At the given word, Burr 
fired. Hamilton fell. Burr hastened away in a 
boat. He was soon condemned as a murderer, 
and fled for his life. 

Hamilton was carried to his barge. He was 
placed on a cot, and borne to the house of a 
friend. A long line of citizens followed the 
almost lifeless body. They wept and wrung their 
hands. All felt that he must die. His wife and 
children were summoned; and, in a few hours, 
Alexander Hamilton breathed his last. 

On the day of his funeral the business houses 
in New York City were closed. The flags on the 
ships in the harbor were hung at half-mast, and 
the bells of the churches were mufiled and tolled. 

A vast procession followed the hero to his 
grave. His war horse, with empty saddle, draped 
in black, walked behind the casket. Then came 



THE STOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HAMIL TON. 1 2 7 

regiments of soldiers. Then the president and 
the students of Columbia College marched to- 
gether, because the '' orphan boy of Nevis " had 
been an honored student of Columbia College, 
when it was King's College. Behind the students 
marched the many societies, who wished to do 
honor to the dead; and all over the country there 
was mourning for the great financier, the soldier, 
the lawyer, and the statesman, Alexander Hamil- 
ton. 

Ministers in their pulpits deplored his loss. One 
said: "Alexander Hamilton was a man on whom 
nature seemed to impress the stamp of greatness. 

" He was the kero w^hose first appearance in the 
field conciliated the esteem of Washington; the 
statesjnan whose genius impressed itself upon the 
constitution of his country; the patriot whose 
integrity baffled the closest scrutiny, and the coun- 
sellor who was at once the pride of the bar and the 
admiration of the court. 

"The name of Hamilton raises in the mind the 
idea of whatever is great, whatever is splendid, 
whatever is illustrious in human nature. 

" Wherever Alexander Hamilton was, the friend- 



128 THE S TOR Y OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 

less had a friend, the fatherless a father, and the 
poor man an advocate." 

The newspapers were banded in black. Each 
paid loving tribute to the dead. Even those that 
had often opposed him hastened now to praise 
him. 

"Americans!" said the Charleston CotiHe^^ "in 
Alexander Hamilton, you have lost your champion, 
your counsellor, and your guide. 

"Who is there in the ancient or the modern 
world that has surpassed him? If we look to his 
life, we shall find more to praise and less to c*ensure 
than in almost any other. 

" The head that guided your guides — that clearest 
head that ever conceived, and that sweetest tongue 
that ever uttered, the dictates of wisdom — lies 
mouldering to clay; yet the deeds this great man 
wrought will live forever. " 

" The name of Hamilton will not die," said one 
newspaper, " until that dark day shall come when 
the name of Washington will also be remembered 
no more." 

" No country ever deplored a greater man," 
said another. 



THE STORY OF A LEX A NDER HA MIL TON. 129 

" Behold! " said another, "a Washington and a 
Hamilton meet again in gladness and triumph." 

The dust of the illustrious statesman lies in 
Trinity Churchyard, at the head of busy Wall 
Street. On a bluff of Manhattan stands the 
" Grange," once his country home, removed 
a short distance from where it then stood. 
But the thirteen trees still flourish where he 
planted them in remembrance of the thirteen 
states he had helped to unite into one great 
nation. 

They tower high above the trees around them. 
It was thus, too, that the fame of Alexander Ham- 
ilton arose above that of other men. 

Like Cain, who slew his brother, Aaron Burr, 
who slew America's greatest statesman, became a 
wanderer on the earth. The name of Hamilton 
sounded in his ears wherever he went. 

"Ah, the slayer of Hamilton P' exclaimed an 
English lord, and cooly turned his back. 

*T always have a miniature of Hamilton hanging 
over my mantle piece," replied a French states- 
man whose favor he sought. 

" By the death of Hamilton you have forfeited 



I30 



THE STORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



the right of citizenship," said a consul as he re- 
fused him passports. 

Wearied with his treatment in Europe, Burr re- 
turned to New York city. 

His old friends shunned him and strangers who 
heard his name refused to clasp his hand. 

At last, when very old and very poor, he died; 
and the event served only to renew the universal 
praise of Alexander Hamilton. 



THE STORY OF 

ANDREW JACKSON 




ANDRE W JACKSON. 



THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON, 



I. — Birth. 

Perhaps you have already heard something 
about General Andrew Jackson, and you may have 
seen the old soldier's portrait, or one of his statues 
which stand in parks and other public places. 

Andrew Jackson was such a wonderful man, 
and did so much for our country, that I am sure 
you will be glad to read all that you can about 
him. 

His father, whose name was also Andrew Jack- 
son, was a poor farmer in Carrickfergus, on the 
north coast of Ireland. 

He rented a few acres of land from a rich lord, 

who threatened, every time he could not pay his 

rent, to turn him out of his cabin. His wife was a 

sad-eyed little woman, who wove linen all day 

long; but, with their hardest work, they could 

barely get food enough for themselves and their 

children. 

133 



1 24 THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

One day Jackson received a letter from a friend 
who had gone to America to live. The friend 
wrote that he could have his passage paid across 
the ocean, if he would only come to North Caro- 
lina, and build a home in the pine forest. 

It was a long time before the poor farmer gave 
any heed to the letter. 

He loved the peat bogs where he had always 
lived, and where his parents and grand-parents 
had lived before him, and he could not make up 
his mind to leave the kind neighbors who toiled 
and suffered like himself. 

Then, perhaps, there was a failure of crops, or, 
perhaps, the rich landlord said something cruel 
about his rent — just why it was I do not know; 
but, in the end, he concluded to go to America. 

And so Andrew Jackson, his wife and two boys, 
Hugh and Robert, took sail in an emigrant ship. 

They landed at Charleston, in South Carolina, 
and went to the Waxhaw settlement in North 
Carolina, where their friend from old Ireland was 
living. 

Now, this was in the year 1765, the very time 
when the Stamp Act was causing so much excite- 



THE STOR V OF ANDRE W J A CKSON. \ 3 c 



ment in America. In all the towns along the coast 
the people were talking about the tyranny of 
King George of England. 

But Andrew Jackson did not hear very much 
about the king or the Stamp Act. He was busy 
felling trees and planting corn. He was proud 
to call the little farm his own, and thought that 
America was the most wonderful country in the 
world. 

His wife picked the wild flax, and spun and wove 
it into cloth; and the bloom came back to her 
cheeks, and she sang all day long as she worked 
at the wheel. 

But sorrow soon came to her even in this land 
of plenty and song. In two years Andrew Jackson 
died. 

A few days after, on the 15th of March, 1767, 
another son was born. 

He was a wee, frail baby, and his wails mingled 
with the sound of mourning for the husband, who 
slept on the hillside. 

" I will call him Andrew," said the weeping 
mother. " Perhaps he will grow handsome and 
strong, like his father! " 



1 36 THE STOR V OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

II. — Boyhood. 

When Andrew was three weeks old, his mother 
moved across the border, from North Carolina 
into South Carolina, where her brother lived. 

" He'll never stand the journey," said the good 
women of the neighborhood, as he was bundled 
up with shawls, and put away in a basket. 

But the journey was made, although the rough 
winds blew, and Andy was soon unloaded at his 
uncle's door. 

" He'll not live to feel his first tooth!" croaked 
the good women of this new neighborhood. 

But Andrew kept growing in spite of all they 
said. He clinched his little fists at colic, measl-s, 
and whooping cough. He talked very early, r.nd 
walked instead of crawled, and set the whole 
house in a roar if any one chanced to take liberties 
with his toys. 

'' If you ask me for things, you may have them," 

he said, " but you shall not touch them without my 

1 " 

leave. 

"Touchy! " sniffed his brothers, but they did not 

often cross him because he was so much younger 

than themselves. 



THE STORY OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 3 7 

When Andy was old enough, he went to school 
with his brothers. Little did the master think, as 
he peered over his spectacles, that he was looking 
at a future President of the United States. 

Andy seemed timid and modest. He was tall 
and thin; his head was long and narrow; his 
face was pale, and about it hung thin hair as 
white as flax. But what eyes the child had! 
They were a clear blue, that flashed like steel in 
the sun. 

'* The lad looks too meek for this earth," said 
the kind hearted teacher to himself. He patted 
Andy's flaxen head and gave him a seat on the 
lowest bench. 

Andy showed his mettle the very first time that 
a lubberly fellow teased him. He could not strike 
back with his puny fists, but, while the master was 
busy, he shaped a big boy out of paper. Then, with 
a grim gesture of warning, he fastened a paper 
string about the paper boy's neck, and flung him 
dangling from the bench. It was soon noised 
about the school that Andy Jackson was too 
savage to be teased. 

He showed no end of pluck. " We can throw 



138 THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

him three times out of four," said his mates, " but 
he'll never stay thrown." 

" Easy, lad, easy," said the master, one day, as 
he caught the little spitfire in the act of rushing 
upon a playmate. " Thou'Ut have others to fight 
besides thy school-fellows, if I read the signs 
aright." 

At this very time strange news was creeping up 
the valley of the Waxhaw. British soldiers were 
trying to make the Americans obey unjust laws 
and people were saying there would soon be 
war. 

Then tidings of the battle of Lexington 
came. 

Andy was not sure where Lexington was, 
but he knew that Americans lived there, and 
that the British king had sent over troops to fight 
them. 

That was quite enough to know. He had heard 
from his mother how the cruel lords of Ireland 
oppressed the poor, and he was furious because 
the king's laws were making Americans suffer like 
the Irish. 

He stamped round and round the little log 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 139 

cabin where he lived; he fastened the steel of a 
scythe to a pole, and mowed down the tall weeds 
in a rage. 

'' Out with the tyrants!" he cried. "Oh, if I were 
a man now, how I would sweep down the British 
with my grass blade! " 

Word came that South Carolina had raised 
troops to resist the British soldiers. Then one 
courier brought news that the king's governor had 
fled to his ships in the harbor; and then another 
courier rode in haste to tell how the fleet at 
Charleston had been driven out to sea. 

It was hard work to study in those days; 
even the master was unlike himself. He wan- 
dered about the room as if he could not keep 
quiet. 

And one hot July morning when Andy reached 
the school, he found the door shut. What did it 
mean? The road was full of wagons and horse- 
men. They were all going one way. 

Andy followed the crowd and reached the court 
house. He heard men talk of a '' Declaration of 
Independence." 

Now, he was only nine years old, and did not 



1 40 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

understand just what a Declaration of Independ- 
ence was; but when men threw up their hats and 
made the woods ring with their shouts he was 
quite sure it was a good thing, and he, too, threw 
up his cap of coon-skin and shouted with all his 
might. 

After this I am sure that the bench at school 
saw very little of Andy Jackson. 

He hung about the blacksmith shop, which stood 
in a clearing near his house, to watch the men of 
Carolina fashion old saws into swords and melt 
pewter mugs into bullets. 

And as they worked they told how General 
Washington had been defeated at Brandywine, and 
how a British general had surrendered at Sar- 
atoga. 

Men came very often up the Waxhaw with news 
from the battlefields. 

When, at last, Andy heard of the surrender of 
Charleston to the British, he could not rest at 
home. 

He mounted his horse and rode off with his 
brothers to join a party of scouts in pursuit of the 
British redcoats. 



THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 4 1 

III. — The Young Prisoner of War. 

Andrew was now thirteen years old and as tall 
as a man. He was fearless and bold, and none 
more than he won renown as a scout. 

About this time Tarleton, the British general, 
raided the settlements on Waxhaw Creek. He 
bribed and frightened many of Jackson's neighbors 
to join his army. 

He pinned a red rag on their coats to show that 
they favored the British; but you may be sure that 
no red rag was pinned to the coat of Andrew 
Jackson. 

He and his brothers escaped to the woods, and 
fought their foes as long as they could. 

At last Robert and Andrew were captured. 
When a haughty officer ordered Andrew to black 
his boots, he stood proudly before the scowling 
redcoat and said: " Sir, I am a prisoner of war, 
and demand to be treated as such." 

''Impudence!" shouted the officer. " Black the 
boots instantly." 

The slim boy drew himself up; his eyes blazed 
like fire as he cried: " I am not a servant to any 
Briton that breathes! " 



142 THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

The officer struck at him with a sword. He par- 
ried the blow with his hand, but bore the scars to 
the end of his life. 

Hugh died from neglect of wounds received in a 
battle. Andrew and Robert were taken to the 
town of Camden, which the British had captured. 

They were kept, with nearly three hundred 
other Americans, in an open field surrounded by 
a high board fence. 

Disease soon killed many, and starvation killed 
more. 

Their only hope was that some American troops 
would come to rescue them from what seemed 
worse than death itself. 

At last, they heard the sentinels say that General 
Greene was marching toward Camden. 

There was great excitement in the little pen 
over this news. All day the prisoners wandered 
about the high fence, peering at every splinter 
to find an opening where they might see out. 

At night, Andrew pried a knot from a board. 
He waited anxiously for the first peep of dawn. 

When, at last, the friendly light came, he stood 
at the opening and spied an army on Hobkirk's 



THE STOR Y OF ANDRE W J A CKSON. 1 43 

Hill. He knew the men were Americans by their 
blue and buff uniforms, and by their flag with its 
thirteen bars of red and white and its thirteen 
stars on a field of blue. 

His heart beat fast as he saw this new American 
banner fluttering over the general's tent. He let 
others climb up to get a peep at it. One of the stars 
was for South Carolina. How the prisoners longed 
to leap over the fence and fight for that star! 

But British guards stood outside the enclosure. 
The unhappy prisoners could only huddle in a 
bunch to hear Andrew tell what he saw outside. 

While General Greene was waiting for cannon, 
his soldiers were busy with their morning chores. 
Some were stirring fires under great pots to boil their 
breakfasts; some were washing linen in the little 
stream that ran at the foot of the hill; some were 
polishing muskets, and some were playing games. 

One tall officer came out of headquarters, and, 
mounting his horse, rode from tent to tent. 

" That must be General Greene himself! " 
shouted Andrew in a hoarse whisper. 

" Hurrah! give us a squint at him, Andy," said 
the waiting men. 



1 44 THE STOR y 01- A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

" Yes, that is he, sure enough," said one. ''You 
can tell him by his straps." 

" Greene was with Washington at Brandywine," 
said another. 

"Aye," said another, '* and he helped capture 
the Dutch at Trenton on a Christmas ! " 

They scrambled over each other to catch a 
glimpse of the hero. " Where's our Marion, the 
' Swamp Fox '? " 

" Can't see him, but if he's not there he's some- 
where else ! " 

Suddenly, in the midst of the whispers, there 
sounded a clash of arms and a stamping of horses 
back of the prison fence. 

"What's that? What's that?" now fairly shouted 
the startled men. 

Andrew was at the knot-hole again; he saw the 
British General Rawdon leading his troopers out 
to surprise the camp. They rode very fast, with 
loud hurrahs, as if they had already won the 
battle. 

The Americans made a rush for arms in the 
tents. Then they rallied, and swept down the hill 
at Rawdon's rear. 



THE STOR V or ANDRE W J A CKSON. 1 45 

The prisoners fairly shouted now. What did it 
matter if the sentinels heard? 

Many rushed pell-mell toward the door of the 
prison, expecting to be free in the wink of an eye. 

But Andrew stood close to the knot-hole; he 
saw how horses ran riderless, how the bluecoats 
were mowed down by the redcoats, and how, at 
last, Greene and his men retreated beyond the 
other side of Hobkirk's Hill. 

When the sound of the pursuing army died away, 
the prisoners fell back in despair. It seemed as if 
they would never escape from the prison pen. 

Now, all this time Mrs. Jackson had been trying 
to find her boys. When she reached Camden, she 
so moved the hearts of the officers by her tears 
that they exchanged Andrew and Robert for some 
British prisoners. Her arms were soon around the 
poor lads. 

Robert was so ill that he was placed on a horse; 
the mother rode another horse. Andrew was 
gaunt and pale; he was without jacket or shoes, 
and so weak that he could hardly stand, yet he 
walked behind the horses; and thus the three 
plodded over forty miles to their old home. 



146 THE STOR Y OF ANDRE IV J A CKSON. 

Then both boys fell ill with the smallpox. 
Robert died, but Andrew recovered. 

When news came of disease among the Ameri- 
can prisoners in the harbor of Charleston, An- 
drew's mother resolved to go as a nurse to the 
pest-laden ships. She arrived at Charleston, but 
soon after died of the fever; and so Andrew Jack- 
son, at the age of fifteen, was left all alone in the 
world. 



IV. — The Lawyer. 

About the time Andrew's mother died, Corn- 
wallis, the British general, surrendered his army 
to Washington at Yorktown, and soon all the 
red coats withdrew from the southern states. 

The American families who had fled to the 
forests for safety returned to their homes on the 
coast. Among these were some young men whom 
Jackson knew. 

After they had gone he was so lonesome that he 
sold his little homestead and followed them to 
Charleston. There he fell in with some wild fellows 
and wasted his money. He soon saw the folly 
of this and began to take life more seriously. 



THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 47 

First he worked as an apprentice in a saddler's 
shop, but he much preferred riding in a saddle to 
making one. Then he taught school for a time, 
but could not endure to be penned in with dullards 
and drones; so he mounted his horse and rode to 
Salisbury, North Carolina, to study law. 

The king's lawyers had fled the country during 
the war and there was a fine opening in the courts 
for young Americans. 

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had just 
begun their practice before the bar in New York, 
and John Quincy Adams was preparing to return 
from Europe in order to enter Harvard College. 

Others who would one day become noted law- 
yers were Henry Clay, a boy of seven, in the 
*' slashes " of Virginia; Daniel Webster and 
Lewis Cass, of New Hampshire; John C. Calhoun, 
of South Carolina; Thomas H. Benton, of North 
Carolina; and Martin Van Buren, of New York. 
These last were toddling infants two years old; 
yet they were destined to be friends or foes to 
the Irish immigrant's son. 

Jackson was seventeen years old when he began 
to study law. He was tall and slim; his face was 



1^8 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CK$ON. 

long and thin, with a high, narrow forehead; his 
eyes were deep blue, and his glance was open and 
frank. 

He made many friends in his new home. 
Indeed, all through life he found friends wherever 
he went, because he was honest, generous, and 
true. 

Now, while Andrew Jackson, the raw country 
lad, was studying law in Salisbury, some men, 
whom you know very well, were busy trying to 
form a government. 

There was no government of the United States 
at that time as there is now. Each state still 
governed itself. 

The Continental Congress, which had kept the 
states together during the war, was falling to 
pieces. 

'* Something must be done to form a govern- 
ment," said the patriots who had struggled to save 
the country. 

And George Washington, John Adams, Ben- 
jamin Franklin, and others wrote letters and 
made speeches about the need of a permanent 
union among the states. 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 49 

Perhaps it was hearing some of these noble men 
talk that set Andrew Jackson to thinking more 
seriously than ever. He studied law in earnest, 
and succeeded so well that in 1788 he was 
appointed public prosecutor for the Western Dis- 
trict of North Carolina. 



V. — The District Attorney. 

The Western District of North Carolina lay 
beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a vast 
wilderness where Indians still lived, but it was 
being slowly settled by the white men. 

Whenever Jackson saw the rough hunters come 
into Salisbury to sell their packs of skins, he ques- 
tioned them about the West; the more he heard of 
it, the more he thought he would like to go there. 

And so when he was made public prosecutor 
for the land beyond the mountains, he gladly set 
out with a hundred other adventurers. 

Pack horses carried their tents and cooking ves- 
sels, and all the men had rifles. They passed 
through Cumberland Gap and were soon in a vast 
forest. Danger lurked on every side. Scouts 



1 50 THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

went in advance all day, and sentinels stood guard 
while their comrades slept. 

One night, after the camp was silent, Jackson 
was lying against a tree enjoying the cool breeze, 
when he heard an owl hooting in the distance. 
Soon another owl hooted. 

"There are many owls in these woods," he 
thought. 

Then another owl, with a strange hoarseness in 
its call, hooted quite near the camp. Jackson 
started from his seat; he glided over to a friend, 
and touched him gently. 

" What's the matter?" growled the sleeper. 

** Listen! " whispered Jackson. '' Hear the owls!" 

"You're not afraid of owls, Jackson?" said his 
friend, with a laugh. 

" But listen to that again! It's too natural. It's 
Indians; I'm sure of it. They're giving signals 
and gathering about us." 

The two aroused some hunters, who declared 
that Indians were near. Tents were quickly 
packed, and the company moved silently on. 

That very night some passing hunters, who 
found the deserted camp-fire, lay down to sleep, 



THE SrOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 1 5 i 

and before dawn all but one were killed by the 
Indians. 

Jackson's party traveled through great forests, 
where the leaves were turning red and yellow, and 
at the end of October reached Nashville, on the 
Cumberland River. 

The settlers read the letters they had brought 
in their saddle-bags, and questioned them eagerly 
about everything in the states. 

When they heard that the majority of the col- 
onies had adopted the Constitution of the United 
States, and that electors were to choose a presi- 
dent, they said George Washington, of Virginia, 
would be elected; and, surely enough, he was, in 
April, 1789. 

Soon after the election, news was brought that 
the western district of North Carolina had been 
ceded to the United States, and called the South- 
west Territory, and that President Washington 
had appointed Andrew Jackson to be the district 
attorney. 

Now the district attorney was a very important 
officer. Many who moved to the West had forgotten 
to pay their debts, and it was the attorney's duty to 



152 THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

remind them of it; he had to punish for land 
stealing and horse stealing, and to settle drunken 
quarrels. 

Court day was the greatest day of the year. 
Friends and foes met then, and almost as many 
quarrels were begun as were settled. 

When the offenders were not satisfied with the 
decision of the court, they would often hurry from 
the house and fight out the dispute, with the judge 
and jury looking on. 

Jackson went on horseback from one court- 
house to another. He was in constant danger 
from the Indians, but he was in almost as much 
danger from those whom he punished. 

When bullets whizzed past him in the forest, he 
laughingly said: "A miss is as good as a mile!" 
And the more he was persecuted, the more he was 
determined to stay at Nashville. 



VI. — The Congressman. 
In 1791, Andrew Jackson married Rachel 
Robards. She was a bright-eyed beauty whose 
father had been one of the wealthiest men on the 
frontier. They lived very happily together. 



THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 5 3 

In 1792, the territory just north of Jackson's 
district was admitted to the Union and called Ken- 
tucky. 

Then people in the Southwest Territory began 
to talk about organizing a state government and 
joining the Union. 

*'If Kentucky can send its representatives to the 
Congress at Philadelphia, why can't we?" said 
Jackson and his friends. 

There was much talking about the matter on 
court days and at log rollings and corn huskings. 

At last, with a deep sense of the important 
steps they were to take, delegates oiled their 
hair with bear's grease, and donned their best 
buckskins. 

With muskets in their hands and bowie-knives 
in their belts, they pushed through the wintry 
woods to Knoxville, a thriving little village on the 
Holston River. 

Among those who went none had more influence 
than Andrew Jackson. In the court house at 
Knoxville, where the logs were piled high in the 
great fire-place, he helped to frame the constitu- 
tion for a state. 



I 5 4 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

"What shall we name our state?" asked these 
lawmakers. " Let its name be Tennessee, after 
the river — the 'River with the great Bend,'" said 
Jackson. Then messengers took the constitution 
to Philadelphia, to ask Congress to admit Tennes- 
see into the Union. 

Now at this time there were two political 
parties. The Federalist party feared to give too 
much power to the masses of the people, and the 
Republican party feared the power of the learned 
and rich. 

Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists de- 
clared that the United States government was 
not yet stable enough to allow a crowd of Western 
ruffians to send delegates to Congress. 

But Aaron Burr and the Republicans said that 
they would risk the rough frontiersmen any time 
sooner than the aristocrats of the cities. 

The Republicans had their way, and Tennessee 
was admitted to the Union as the sixteenth state. 
Then who should be elected the first representa- 
tive in Congress? "Andrew Jackson!" shouted 
almost everybody in Tennessee. 

And so the new congressman mounted his horse 



THE STORY OF A NDR E ]V J A CKSON. I 5 5 

and set out on the journey to Philadelphia, nearly 
eight hundred miles away. 

When he reached the capital city, he seemed 
quite out of place. He was tall and lank; his hair 
hung over his face and was tied at the back in an 
eel-skin; his dress was peculiar, and there were 
many rumors afloat about his rude life in the 
West. 

When he attempted to make a speech, he choked 
and hesitated ; but for all that, he helped pass a 
bill to repay the people of Tennessee for the 
expenses of an Indian war. This made him more 
popular at home than ever. 

He was soon chosen a senator ; and among the 
very first to greet him in the Senate was Aaron 
Burr, who had helped pass the Indian Bill. The 
two men became great friends, and their friend- 
ship lasted as long as they lived. 

Jackson did not like to live in Philadelphia, and 
soon resigned his position to go back home. He 
had already seen much while in office. He had 
seen President Washington enter the Chamber of 
Representatives to deliver his last address. He 
had seen John Adams inaugurated President, and 



1 56 THE STOR Y OF ANDRE W J A CKSON. 

he had met Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 
who would some day be presidents. 

But little did the rough frontiersman think that 
he himself would ever be President, and little did 
any one else think it, either ! 



VII. — Storekeeper, Judge, and Planter. 

When Jackson returned to Tennessee, he 
brought with him a train of packhorses loaded 
with goods. He built a cabin in Clover Bottom, 
near Nashville, and filled it with farming imple- 
ments, salt, sugar, blankets, cotton and woolen 
goods, and many other things. 

Then he exchanged these wares for skins, raw 
cotton, corn, wheat, and pork to send down the 
Mississippi to New Orleans, where he received 
good Spanish dollars in exchange. 

People came many miles to trade at the store in 
Clover Bottom. Indians came, but they were such 
thieves that Jackson did not allow them to enter 
the store. He made them stand in a row at a win- 
dow, through which he handed out their supplies. 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. l^'J 

After a time, Andrew Jackson was appointed 
judge of the supreme court of Tennessee and 
major-general of the miHtia, and he built a fine 
house and lived in style. 

Then he was unfortunate in business. He had 
to sell his fine house and most of his land to pay 
his debts, and he moved back to the little log cabin 
where he had first begun housekeeping. 

" Rather go to bed supperless than to rise in 
debt," was Andrew Jackson's motto. 

He held his good name higher than anything 
else. His reputation for honor was so great that 
men always trusted him. When a citizen of Ten- 
nessee wanted a loan from a banker in Boston, he 
showed the names of many prominent men in his 
state. 

"Do you know Andrew Jackson?" asked the 
banker. 

'* Yes, but he is not worth a tenth as much as 
either of these men whose names I offer you." 

" No matter," replied the shrewd banker; "Jack- 
son has always paid his debts. If you can get him 
to sign your paper, we will loan you the money." 

After Jackson found himself so deeply involved, 



158 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

he resigned his judgeship to become a planter. 
Soon his cotton, corn, and tobacco throve greatly, 
and his horses were the fattest and his slaves the 
most industrious in the state. 

Those were happy days for Andrew Jackson and 
his wife. They called their cabin the " Hermit- 
age." At first there were only three rooms in the 
Hermitage, yet everybody was made welcome, 
from the peddler with his pack to the governor 
who came in his coach. 

And here in 1805 came Aaron Burr. He had 
killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, and was very 
unpopular in the states east of the mountains ; but 
he was well received by the people of Tennessee. 
They remembered how he had helped the territory 
to become a state. 

Jackson remembered how kindly he had treated 
him in Philadelphia, and he invited him to his 
home. 

And so Burr, the wanderer, spent many days at 
the Hermitage. He talked much about the con- 
quest of Mexico. 

Mexico was then a vast territory belonging to 
Spain. Besides the present boundary, it included 



THE STORY OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 5 9 

what is now Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, 
California, and parts of Colorado and Kansas. 

Jackson was still major-general of the Tennessee 
militia, and he pledged himself to build boats and 
equip men for the expedition. 

After Burr had gone, reports came that he was 
plotting not only to conquer Mexico, but to make 
himself emperor over all the states west of the 
Alleghany Mountains. 

These reports displeased Jackson very much. 
He wrote to some one, *' I would die in the last 
ditch before I would see the Union disunited." 

And when Burr came again to Clover Bottom, 
Jackson told him plainly enough that he would not 
lend aid to divide the Union. Burr declared that 
he had no intention of separating the West from 
the East. 

Jackson believed him; and when President Jef- 
ferson ordered the arrest of Aaron Burr on the 
charge of treason to the United States, he hastened 
to Richmond, Virginia, to defend his friend at court. 

We shall find that all through his life Andrew 
Jackson dared to do what he thought was right, 
and never deserted a friend in his hour of need. 



1 60 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

VIII.— "Old Hickory." 

Even after Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio 
became states, the settlers west of the Alleghanies 
lived in fear of the Indians. 

The dusky warriors crept through the forests to 
shoot at farmers who plowed in the fields, or hunt- 
ers who followed their game; but they could not 
keep peace among themselves long enough to unite 
in a war against the white men. At last, Tecum- 
seh, a Shawnee chief, wandered alone in the forest. 
He was continually planning how to drive the pale- 
faces away from the hunting-grounds. He decided 
to unite all the Indian nations into one great army, 
and he stirred up the tribes north of the Ohio until 
they sharpened their tomahawks and danced to- 
gether around the red pole of war. 

Then he paddled across the beautiful river and 
visited the Creeks, of Alabama. He chided them 
for following the customs of the white men which 
made the once noble warriors so weak. 

" Lay aside the soft blankets of wool," he said, 
" and don the skins of the forest. 

" The Great Father is angry when he hears the 
noise from your muskets. Put away the thunder 



THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 6 1 

of the white men and take up again the bow and 
the hatchet." 

While Tecumseh was thus busy in the South, his 
warriors in the North were defeated by General 
William Henry Harrison in the battle of Tippeca- 
noe; and when the chief returned to find them 
scattered and slain, he fled to the British in 
Canada. 

Now, the British were very unfriendly to the 
Americans. They insulted the Stars and Stripes 
on the ocean, and seized American sailors on board 
of American ships. 

And when the British officers became so bold 
that they steered their men-of-war into our own 
harbors to seize our ships as prizes, President 
Madison declared war against Great Britain. 

This was on the igth of June, 1812. There were 
battles on land and on sea. 

At first the Americans had the worst of it. The 
great fort at Detroit, on Lake Michigan, surren- 
dered, and almost everything went wrong, until 
Captain Oliver H. Perry cleared Lake Erie of 
British ships. 

Then General William Henry Harrison defeated 



1 6 2 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

a British army on the Thames River, in Canada. 
Tecumseh was slain in this battle, and many Indian 
warriors deserted from the British. 

Meantime, General Jackson, of Tennessee, was 
not idle. He offered to bring two thousand five 
hundred volunteers into the field, and his offer was 
accepted. The troops were ordered South. It 
seemed very important to guard the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. If New Orleans were seized by the British, 
the whole valley of the Mississippi might be 
lost. 

Florida at that time belonged to Spain. The 
Spanish king hoped that, if England might con- 
quer the United States, the country west of the 
Alleghanies would be annexed to Florida. 

Spain claimed to be neutral, but allowed the 
British to use Florida as a base of supplies, and 
aided them by drilling the Indians and giving them 
muskets of English make. 

Jackson wrote to the secretary of war that he 
could conquer Florida and plant the American 
eagle on the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine; 
and he made everything ready for a long campaign 
on the Gulf of Mexico. 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE VV J A CKSON. 163 

It was midwinter when the general and his men 
boarded their boats on the Cumberland River. 
They paddled down the Ohio to the Mississippi, 
and it took them a month to pass through the ice 
to Natchez. Here Jackson spent another month 
waiting for orders from Washington. He kept the 
men hopeful by his ardor. 

Once, when they seemed discouraged at the 
delay, he asked: "Where is the man that would 
not prefer to be buried in the ruins of his coun- 
try than to live the slave of lords and tyrants?" 

And when, at last, the orders came, they said to 
dismiss his troops, as it did not appear that the 
British would go South. 

Jackson was greatly grieved over the result of 
his expedition, but he marched his men home 
through more than five hundred miles of forests 
and prairies. He gave up his three horses to carry 
the sick and walked like a common soldier. 

He kept such stout courage that one man called 
him *' tough," another called him *' as tough as 
hickory," and then in gratitude they called him 
'* Old Hickory," and the name of " Old Hickory " 
clung to him till the day of his death. 



1 64 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 

IX. — The Creek War. 

If Jackson was not needed at New Orleans, he 
was needed to defend his country somewhere 
else. 

The Creeks in the South could not forget the 
warnings of Tecumseh. They met in council, and 
pondered how they might drive out the white men. 
When an earthquake shook their wigwams, they 
said, "Tecumseh is stamping his foot in anger;" 
and when a meteor shot across the sky, they said, 
" It is the soul of Tecumseh, which can not rest 
till the palefaces are driven from the hunting- 
grounds." 

The British officers at Pensacola offered five 
dollars apiece for American scalps, and the zeal of 
the warriors increased. Soon the settlements on 
the frontiers of Georgia and Tennessee were at- 
tacked, and the whites abandoned their farms and 
fled to the forts. 

"We will carry war into the heart of their coun- 
try," said General Jackson, of the Tennessee mili- 
tia, and his men marched again to the South. 

On one of the first battlefields an Indian baby 
was found clinging to its dead mother. The 



THE STORY OF A NDRE PV J A CKSON. 1 6 5 

squaws in camp said, " Kill the papoose, for all of 
its kin are dead." 

But General Jackson took the child to his own 
tent. He mixed brown sugar with water and kept 
it alive until it could be sent to the Hermitage. 

Here the Indian baby found a home, and was 
loved like a son until he died at the age of seven- 
teen. 

There were many battles in this campaign 
against the Creeks. The Indians were driven step 
by step into their hiding places. 

At last, Jackson halted on the banks of the 
Coosa and waited for supplies. No supplies came, 
because the rivers were then too shallow to float 
the boats. 

There was soon nothing to eat but acorns and 
bark from the trees. It is said that one morning 
the general invited his officers to breakfast with 
him in his tent. Although starving themselves, 
they supposed that he had plenty to eat. When the 
proper hour arrived, a tray of acorns and a pitcher 
of water were brought in. 

"Sit down, gentlemen," said Jackson; " this is my 
breakfast ; but a soldier never despairs. Heaven 



1 6 6 THE STORY OF ANDREW JA CKSON. 

will preserve us from famine and return us home 
cojiqueroi'sr 

The days of fasting continued until the Tennes- 
seeans declared they were ready to fight, but not to 
starve, and began to pack up to go home. All that 
General Jackson said had little effect. 

When the militia started on their homeward 
march, Jackson called on the volunteers to help 
stop them. But very soon the volunteers them- 
selves revolted, and then Jackson turned the guns 
of the militia against the volunteers. 

Things continued to grow worse and worse, until 
Jackson promised that if no supplies came within 
two days he would break up the camp. The two 
days passed by, but not a bite of anything was in 
sight. The soldiers demanded that he should 
keep his promise. 

" If only two will remain with me," said the 
general, " I will never abandon the fort;" and his 
face showed such anguish that more than a 
hundred rallied about him to pledge their sup- 
port. 

Most of the men started homeward. They soon 
met the long train of provisions, and with shouts of 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 1 6 7 

joy new camp fires were built and oxen were 
killed. The woods rang with merriment, while the 
soldiers feasted and drank. 

Then with strength came boldness. The men 
declared that, now their legs were strong enough, 
they would go home in spite of Jackson. But they 
had hardly started before the fiery general was in 
their path. 

There he stood. His face was pale, his eyes 
blazed like balls of fire, his gray hair rose straight 
up, as he cried in tones that echoed through the 
woods that he would shoot the first man who 
moved a step forward. The soldiers fled in a 
panic before him and returned to their tents. 

Soon more recruits came, and the Indian war 
commenced again. " Until all is done, nothing is 
done," said Jackson. 

He invaded the Holy Ground on the Talla- 
poosa, where the Indians declared no white man 
might enter and live, and prophets were slain, 
and warriors, squaws, and papooses perished. 
When the chiefs begged for peace, the army dis- 
banded. 

Soon after this, the Creeks met at Fort Jackson 



1 68 THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

in the Holy Ground, to make a treaty. Jackson 
sat in a great circle of warriors. 

" I have done the white people all the harm I 
could," said a chief; "and if I had an army, I 
would yet fight, but I have none. Once I could 
arouse my warriors, but I cannot arouse the dead. 
My warriors can no longer hear my voice. Their 
bones lie bleaching on the battlefields. You 
are a brave man, Jackson. I rely on your 
generosity." 

Then another spoke : " A warrior went to the 
British on the lakes," he said ; " when he returned, 
he brought gifts which made our warriors murder 
the Americans. Then the British at Pensacola 
misled the warriors. 

''When you had your first war against the British 
we were young and foolish, and fought against 
you ; but Father Washington warned us never to 
interfere between the British and the Americans. 
Now, if ever the British say we must fight again I 
will tell them no." 

The most of the warriors agreed that their 
rivers might be navigated and that roads might be 
opened out through their country. 



THE STOR V OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. I 69 

X. — The Battle of New Orleans. 

While General Jackson was fighting the Indians, 
the fleets of Great Britain had been bringing more 
troops to America. A British army burned Wash- 
ington, and President Madison and his Cabinet 
fled from the city. 

People began to say that the British would soon 
place troops in every town and keep them there 
until the Americans swore allegiance to the king. 

But you may be sure that Andrew Jackson never 
said such a thing as that. When a fleet sailed 
round the reefs of Florida and landed troops at 
Pensacola, he marched against Pensacola. 

The Spaniards surrendered, the British with- 
drew to their ships, and the Indians scattered 
through the forest. 

Then Jackson set out for New Orleans, in 
Louisiana, a hundred and seventy miles away. 

Now, Louisiana had just been admitted to the 
Union. The people of the new state were mostly 
Spanish, French, and negroes. 

New Orleans, its capital, was different from any 
other city in the United States. It was fortified by 
an old wall, with bastions at four corners where 



1 70 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

sentinels always stood. And there was a great 
cathedral, and a curious town hall; and there were 
houses with arcades, lattices, and balconies. On 
the levees by the Mississippi River were piles of 
cotton bales, and casks of sugar and molasses, 
waiting to be shipped to the West Indies. 

As Jackson entered the city, he marked well 
these piles of casks and bales, and made up his 
mind just what to 'do with them. He said that 
they should help him in the fight. 

The people of New Orleans hailed his approach 
with delight. ''Jackson's come! Jackson's come!" 
went from lip to lip in Spanish, French, and 
English, and "Yankee Doodle" was sung on the 
streets by singers who could not pronounce the 
words. 

Now, the people of this strange city had looked 
for a grand general with a mustache and epaulettes 
and a staff of officers in splendid uniforms. 

They saw a tall, thin man, dressed in threadbare 
clothes, with a short, blue cloak, and boots reaching 
to the knee, and with him were five or six others 
as poorly dressed as himself. 

Jackson soon showed that he was every inch a 



THE STORY OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 7 1 

general. He did not rest a moment. He declared 
martial law. He gave orders that all street lamps 
should be put out at nine o'clock, and that no one 
should enter or leave the city without passports 
from headquarters. He appealed to the French, 
Spanish, free negroes, and Americans to defend 
their state from the redcoats. 

He even called on the smugglers for aid. There 
was old Jean Lafitte, who had an island in the Gulf 
where he hid the rich booty he seized. Jackson 
promised pardon for his smuggling, and soon the 
ships of the sea robbers lay in wait for the British 
fleet. 

Jackson summoned the engineers to examine 
the bayous and harbors, and hundreds of men 
were set to digging ditches and carrying dirt 
in wheelbarrows, shovels, and carts. Bales of 
cotton and hogsheads of sugar were heaped into 
line. 

One rich dealer in cotton called to Jackson: 
" You must appoint a guard for this cotton of 
mine." 

" Certainly," replied Jackson. ** Here, sergeant, 
give this gentleman a musket and ammunition and 



1^2 THE STORY OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 

Station him in the line of defence. No man is 
better qualified to guard cotton than the man who 
owns it! " 

There were plenty of volunteers. The young 
aristocrats of the city became aids-de-camp; 
regiments in flatboats came down from Nashville; 
friendly Indians gathered in feathers and war 
paint, and soon five thousand men were toiling 
day and night on the breastworks. 

" There'll be time enough for sleep when we've 
driven the villains into the swamp," said Jackson. 
The army was still at work on the twenty-fourth 
of December. 

Now, at that very time, in the town of Ghent 
across the sea, a treaty of peace was being signed 
between the agents of Great Britain and those 
of the United States; but there was no ocean cable 
then to carry this news to America. 

No one in the United States expected peace yet, 
and the eyes of all were turned toward the army 
at New Orleans. President Madison and his 
cabinet, the senators, and members of the House 
of Representatives at Washington waited eagerly 
for news. One naval ofificer studied the map of 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 7 3 

New Orleans, and said it could not be defended 
against a fleet of fifty vessels, armed with a thou- 
sand cannon. 

Twenty thousand British soldiers were confident 
of success. They were the flower of England's 
army and navy; many of them had fought against 
Napoleon, and some of their ships had been in 
great victories on the Nile River, in Egypt. 

" I shall eat my Christmas dinner in New 
Orleans," said the British admiral. 

'' Perhaps so," said General Jackson when he 
heard of it, " but I shall have the honor of presid- 
ing at that dinner ! " 

Ladies sent a message to ask what they should 
do if the city were attacked. "Say to them," said 
the general, '' not to be uneasy. No British 
soldier shall enter New Orleans as an enemy 
unless over my dead body." 

At last, the British in red, and green, and tartan 
plaids marched toward the earthworks. 

Perhaps at that very moment General Jackson 
remembered the British officer who had struck 
him across the head because he would not black 
his boots, and perhaps he remembered how his 



174 ^^^ ^ '^^^ V OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

two brothers and his mother had died in the first 
war with the redcoats. 

His cannon belched fire from the wall in front 
of him, and a score of British officers fell. A 
retreat was sounded. 

Then on the eighth day of January, the soldiers 
of King George advanced again. On they came 
and their cannon balls whistled a greeting. 

" Don't mind those rockets," said Jackson; " they 
are mere toys to amuse children !" 

"Old Hickory" seemed to be everywhere at 
one time. " Stand to your guns! " he cried to one. 
" See that every shot tells!" he called to another. 

In twenty-five minutes the victory was won, but 
it had been an awful battle for the British. More 
than two thousand of them were killed and 
wounded. 

Only eight of Jackson's men were killed and 
thirteen wounded. And when the guns ceased 
firing, and the sentinels called down from the 
watchtowers of New Orleans that the redcoats 
had fied to their ships, songs of praise rang out 
from the cathedral, and the people fiocked into 
the streets to welcome the return of the conqueror. 



HE STOR V OF ANDRE IV J A CKSON. I 75 

Now, all this time rumors good and bad had 
reached the cities east of the mountains. Snow 
storms delayed the couriers, and when, at last, the 
news of victory came, people could hardly believe it. 

''And who is Jackson?" they cried. But it was 
not long till all the newspapers had plenty to say 
about Andrew Jackson of Clover Bottom, in Ten- 
nessee; and Congress gave him a vote of thanks 
and ordered a gold medal in his honor. 

When the tardy report of the Treaty of Ghent 
arrived. Federalists and Republicans, who had not 
spoken for years, clasped hands like old friends. 
There were bonfires and wild huzzas, and long lines 
of sleighs drove through the streets of many towns 
with " Peace " on the hatbands of the drivers. 

" Hurrah for Jackson ! " called the merry- 
makers as they passed each other with jingling bells. 

During all the year the merchant vessels had 
lain idle in the harbors with tar barrels over the 
masts to protect them. " Madison's nightcaps," 
the barrels had been called; and now that com- 
merce was safe again, thousands flocked down to 
the wharves to see Madison's nightcaps lifted off 
as the ships sailed away to foreign ports. 



1 76 THE STOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 

The Union was stronger than ever. Every one 
had fought for it, or paid for it, or wept for it in 
this war of 181 2. But Andrew Jackson received 
more honor than any other man. One poet wrote: 
<' A happy New Year for Columbia begun 

When our Jackson secured what our Washington won." 



XI. — Governor of Florida. 

After a few months' rest at the Hermitage, the 
hero of New Orleans went on horseback through 
the Cumberland Gap toward Washington, and all 
along his pathway people turned out to greet him. 

In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, now very old, 
offered a toast in his honor. At Washington, he 
became the idol of the hour. His stateliness won 
the hearts of the ladies, and his cordial manner 
pleased the men. He was made a major-general 
of the United States army, and had riches, honor, 
and fame. 

He returned home, but he did not remain there 
long. " In time of peace prepare for war," said 
Jackson. He posted troops at New Orleans, and 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 7 7 

held council fires with the Indians to settle disputes 
about land. 

Then some negroes began to give trouble. Many 
slaves from Georgia had escaped from their mas- 
ters to northern Florida. They gathered herds and 
flocks, and built homes, and called themselves free. 
They numbered nearly a thousand, and had chiefs 
and captains, who drilled them at arms. 

After a time they seized a fort on the Appala- 
chicola River, and began to plunder the Ameri- 
cans. The fort was in Florida, but, because the 
Spaniards did not have troops to attack it, some of 
Jackson's troops blew it up. 

Then the Seminoles in Georgia and Alabama 
grew restless. They welcomed the fleeing negroes 
to their wigwams and raised the red pole of war as 
they sang of the white scalps they would take. 
General Jackson marched from Nashville with an 
army and scattered the warriors. 

And when he saw that the Spaniards were aiding 
the Indians, he seized the fort of St. Marks, in 
Florida, drove out the Spanish garrison, hauled 
down the Spanish flag, and put in its place the 
Stars and Stripes. 



1 78 THE STOR V OF A NDRE JV J A CKSON. 

In a few months he had broken the power of the 
Seminoles completely and had not lost a single 
man. But what about the seizure of the Spanish 
fort? Spain was at peace with the United States. 
The boldness of "Old Hickory " might bring on a 
war with the Spanish king. Some said that Con- 
gress, to avoid a war, should pass a vote of censure 
on General Jackson. 

The hero was too popular with the people for 
this to be done, but the American troops were 
withdrawn from the Spanish fort. 

Now, the Spanish king knew very well that he 
could not continue to hold Florida without the aid 
of a large army; and so when President Monroe 
soon afterwards proposed to buy the province, he 
sold it for five million dollars. Jackson was ap- 
pointed the first governor of Florida. 

In those days Florida was a wilderness of 
swamps and live oaks, with here and there a half- 
ruined fort. On the east coast was St. Augustine, 
the oldest town in the United States, and on the 
west was Pensacola, where the Spanish governor 
lived. 

Governor Jackson marched into Pensacola with 



THE STOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 1 79 

a regiment, and the Spanish flag on the govern- 
ment building was taken down. The Spaniards, 
whose lands had been sold by the king, crowded 
the harbor with their household goods, and set sail 
for Cuba in a fleet of ships. 

American adventurers hastened to buy up land 
for speculation, and drowsy old Pensacola soon 
had the appearance of a brisk American town. 

Governor Jackson remained only a few months 
in Florida. The climate did not agree with him, 
and he resigned his office to return to the Hermit- 
age. He was welcomed home with great joy by the 
people of Nashville. They felt that his honors 
were their honors, and were proud of him wherever 
he went. 

When President Monroe visited Nashville, a ball 
was given in his honor ; but the ornament of the 
ball seemed to be the general rather than the 
president. The two men marched into the hall 
arm in arm. General Jackson was much taller 
than President Monroe, and was dressed in full 
uniform. 

'*Ah, see our general!" whispered the citizens; 
" he surpasses all in the room ! " 



1 8 O THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

XII. — The Hermitage. 

And so it was in Clover Bottom that Andrew 
Jackson again found himself at home. The Her- 
mitage was now a comfortable brick house with wide 
piazzas where rich and poor were welcomed alike. 

Jackson often drove to Nashville in a carriage 
drawn by four handsome iron-gray horses, with 
black servants in liveries ; and as he wound in and 
out among hay wagons and strings of mules that 
blocked up the streets, the simple country people 
in the market place thought him a very grand 
person indeed. Yet when General Lafayette 
stopped at the Hermitage in 1825, he was surprised 
at the plain living of the hero of New Orleans. 

"What!" exclaimed one of the Frenchmen who 
accompanied him, "what! Does the most famous 
general in America live thus? In France he would 
have a palace in the city and a country seat, and his 
houses would be filled with liveried servants and 
costly silver and gold plate, and all France would 
be taxed to pay for his splendor!" 

But the more the old marquis knew General 
Jackson, the more he admired him; and after he 
had bidden him adieu, he said to some of his 



THE STOR Y OF ANDRE IV J A CKSON. 




1 82 THE STOR V OF ANDRE IV J A CKSON. 



friends: "That is a great man. He has much 
before him yet! " 

Now, it had been nearly forty years since 
Andrew Jackson first crossed the mountains, and 
wonderful changes had taken place in the West. 
After steamboats were invented, thousands of 
settlers came down the Ohio every year. Towns 
sprang up along the rivers ; forests and prairies 
were made into fine farms, and schoolhouses and 
churches were everywhere. 

So many states had been admitted into the 
Union that the people of the great West began to 
say: '* Why can't we send a President to Washing- 
ton? Here we are, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, 
Louisiana, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, and Mis- 
souri, and we have boundless territory from 
which to make more states. We have conquered 
the Indians, and driven out the wild beasts, and 
cut down the forests ; we have sent our best men 
to the north to defeat the British and to the south 
to defeat them. We have earned a high place in 
the nation. Let us put on a bold front and 
demand the highest place. Let us ask that a man 
from the West shall be made President." 



THE STOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 1 8 3 

Ah, but who could win in an election against a 
candidate from the East? 

" Who, indeed," cried Tennessee — " who could 
win but the hero of New Orleans? Who but 'Old 
Hickory ' is known to the people on the coast? " 

And so the Tennessee legislature nominated 
Andrew Jackson for President of the United 
States. 

Now, just across the border was the Kentucky 
legislature, whose hero was Henry Clay. 

" The President from the West must not be the 
laughing stock of scholars and statesmen," said 
Kentucky. "Jackson is brave, but he is ignorant. 
Let us name Henry Clay. He is a polished states- 
man. We shall never be ashamed of Harry of 
the West." 

And so Henry Clay was nominated by his 
friends in Kentucky. 

But the politicians of the East did not want a 
man from the West. They nominated John 
Quincy Adams and other Eastern men for the 
office. 

Jackson himself laughed at the idea of being 
President. " No, I can command a body of troops 



I 84 THE STOR Y OF ANDRE W J A CKSON. 

in a rough way," he said, "but I am not fit to be 
President." 

Who would be President? That was the ques- 
tion on the lips of all. The choice seemed to lie 
between Jackson and Adams. 

Would it be the Western planter, the Indian 
fighter, the stern soldier of 181 2, or would it be the 
elegant scholar who had spent years at the courts 
of kings? 

The friends of Jackson hurrahed for " Old 
Hickory." They called him a second Washington, 
and it looked for a time as though he would surely 
be elected. 

Daniel Webster wrote to his brother Eze- 
kiel: "General Jackson's manners are more 
presidential than those of any of the candidates. 
He is grave and mild. My wife is for him de- 
cidedly." ~~~^^-^^ 
- — ^In the end, John Quincy Adams was electe^^ 

But the West was determined to name the next 
President, and the man it wanted was Andrew 
Jackson. Four years later, he was elected by a 
great vote of the people both in the East and in 
the West. 



THE STOR V OF ANDRE JV JA CKSON. I85 

XIII. — President of the United States. 

Soon after General Jackson was elected Presi- 
dent, his wife died. He was broken-hearted over 
his loss, for she had been a kind and loving wife. 
He wished to remain at the Hermitage, where he 
might be near her grave; but the people had 
called him to office, and he felt that he must 
serve them. 

He took a steamboat down the Cumberland 
and up the Ohio to Pittsburg, and then rode to 
Washington to be inaugurated on the 4th of 
March, 1829, as the seventh President of the 
United States. 

There were six secretaries in the official cabinet; 
but he did not ask much advice from these. He 
sought out a few friends whom he consulted 
so much that they were called the " Kitchen 
Cabinet." When Congress passed bills he did not 
think were best for the country, he vetoed them. 
If Congress could not pass them again by a 
vote of two-thirds they failed to become laws. 

There were many questions about which 
people differed very much in opinion, and one 
of these was the tariff question. A tariff is a tax 



1 8 6 THE STORY OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 

laid on certain goods imported from foreign 
countries. 

"Out with foreign wares!" cried the manu- 
facturing states of the North. ** Put a high tariff 
on the manufactures from Europe, and give us a 
chance to make everything for ourselves!" 

But the states of the South did not manufacture 
anything; they wanted to exchange their cotton, 
tobacco, rice, and indigo for the products of 
Europe, as cheaply as possible. They did not 
want to pay a tax on imported wares. 

Now, President Jackson was opposed to the 
high tariff law. His friends in the South declared 
that he would have sympathy with them if they 
refused to allow the taxes to be collected at their 
ports by the government officers. 

But Jackson said to himself: " This high tariff 
has now become a law of the land by a vote of the 
majority of the people; and since I was elected to 
execute this law, as well as all others, I am deter- 
mined to have it enforced." 

The members of Congress from the South gave 
a great banquet, to which they invited President 
Jackson. He heard some of the guests say that, if 



THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 8 7 

Congress would not change the tariff law, fhe 
states that did not like the law might withdraw 
from the Union. What did that mean? 

Jackson knew very well that it meant that our 
country should be divided into many little 
republics instead of being one great republic, as 
George Washington and others had intended when 
they signed the Constitution of the United 
States. 

When the time came to make speeches, the 
President rose to offer a toast. All leaned eagerly 
forward. They thought he would say something 
against the tariff. 

But the Man of the Iron Will looked down the 
long lines of brilliant men and exclaimed: "Our 
Federal Union, it rmist be preserved!" These 
words caused much dismay among the guests. 
They saw that the President would oppose any 
attempt to secede from the Union. 

After a time South Carolina grew bold, and 
declared that the state would secede if tariffs were 
collected at her ports, and ordered the militia to 
be ready to act if necessary. 

President Jackson did not hesitate a moment. 



1 8 8 THE S TOR Y OF A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 

He sent two war-ships to Charleston, and this 
quickly prevented a rebellion. 

He lived according to the very words he had 
spoken when an unknown soldier in Tennessee: 
" I shall be found in the last extremity endeavoring 
to discharge the duty I owe to my country." 



XIV. — Death at the Hermitage. 

Andrew Jackson served eight years as President, 
and each year he grew more popular with the 
people. 

In spite of all enemies, everything seemed to 
prosper during his administration. The cotton 
crops in the South were enormous. The wheat 
and corn in the middle and western states yielded 
more than the Americans could use, and shiploads 
of grain were sent to foreign lands. The national 
debt was paid. Steamboat lines, pike roads, rail- 
roads, and canals were built. 

There were so many labor-saving machines 
invented that farmers and mechanics had more 
time to read, and some newspapers were sold for a 



THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON. 



penny apiece. American poets, historians, and 
orators began to be talked about in Europe. And 
all this progress added much to the glory of 
Andrew Jackson. 

He put on a haughty air with the French, and 
forced them to pay a large amount of money for 
damage to our merchantmen during their wars. 

He sent armies to Wisconsin and to Georgia to 
conquer the troublesome Indians; and when news 
came that the Seminoles were plotting again to 
massacre the white settlers, he sent troops who 
drove them into the swamps of Florida. 

But, although Jackson fought the warriors when 
they were on the warpath, he wished to be just 
to them in times of peace. 

The United States bought Indian lands, and he 
said: " Pay the Indians honorably for their lands — 
their full value in silver, not blankets, not rifles 
nor powder, but hard cash." 

And he advised Congress to set apart an Indian 
territory west of the Mississippi, where all the 
tribes might seek a home and make laws for 
themselves. 

While on a tour through New England, cannons 



I go THE STOR Y OF A NDRE W J A CKSON. 

boomed at his approach, flags waved, and dinners 
were the order of the day; and when Jackson laid 
the corner stone of a monument to Mary, the 
mother of Washington, the patriotism of the peo- 
ple was raised to the highest pitch. 

Harvard College made him a " Doctor of Laws." 

'' Why, Jackson can hardly write his own name," 
said his enemies, *' and a Doctor of Laws is a title 
for scholars!" 

A curious crowd looked on while a learned profes- 
sor addressed the President in a long Latin speech. 
Everybody smiled. There sat " Old Hickory " on 
the platform, and people knew well enough that he 
did not understand a word that was said. When 
the Latin speech was over, a wag called out to 
Jackson for some Latin, and then everybody 
smiled again. 

But the old hero rose politely, and, stepping for- 
ward, said, "^ Pluribus Unum!' It was the motto 
put on the American seal by Benjamin Franklin. 
Every schoolboy knows it who has jingled quarters 
in his pocket — *' One made out of many! " 

Who did not remember at that moment how 
Jackson had preserved the many states as one 



THE S TOR Y OF ANDREW J A CKSON. I g I 

united country when South Carolina tried to 
secede? And who did not remember how he had 
fought, over and over again, for the Union? 
Cheers rent the air for the new Doctor of Laws, 
and the greatest scholars in the college hastened 
to shake his hand. 

At the close of his second term he said, in his 
farewell address, " I leave this great people pros- 
perous and happy." 

Jackson traveled homeward by easy stages. He 
was now seventy years old. He lived the life of a 
planter the rest of his life. He was respectful to 
women and loving and tender to children. Even 
his bitterest enemies said that he had been brave 
and skillful as a soldier and honest and fearless as 
a statesman. 

Nobody visited Nashville without driving out to 
the Hermitage to visit " The General." 

In his house were many interesting relics. Not 
the least of these was a blue and yellow uniform 
worn by the hero at New Orleans, which you may 
see to-day in the Patent Office at Washington. 

During the week, Jackson was always ready to 
ride or walk with his guests, but on Sundays he 



1 92 THE STOR Y OF ANDRE IV J A CKSON. 

would say: ** Gentlemen, do what you please in my 
home; I am going to church." 

And on one Sunday in June the soul of the fear- 
less man took its flight. He was surrounded by 
his family and servants and a few of his dearest 
friends. His last words were: 

" Be good, my dear children and friends and serv- 
ants. I hope to meet you all in heaven, both 
white and black! " 

He was buried by the side of his wife in the gar- 
den of the Hermitage, and the tablet which marks 
his grave reads: 

GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 

Born on the 15th of March, 1767. 

Died on the 8th of June, 1845. 



THE STORY OF 

ULYSSES S. GRANT 




194 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



I. — Naming the Baby. 

Jesse Root Grant was a young tanner who lived 
in Clermont County, Ohio. It is said that his 
ancestors belonged to a Scottish clan whose motto 
was: "Stand fast, stand firm, stand sure." 

His great-grandfather, "honest Matthew" Grant, 
landed on Nantasket Beach, in Massachusetts, in 
1630, just ten years after the Pilgrims landed on 
Plymouth Rock. His grandfather was a soldier in 
the French and Indian war, and his father was a 
lieutenant in the Revolution. 

Jesse Grant was proud of his ancestors. He 
tried to honor their memory by his own upright 
life and often said that " Stand fast, stand firm, 
stand sure " was just as good a motto for an Ameri- 
can as for a Scotchman. 

He was so honest and industrious that he was 
respected by all who knew him. 

After he had saved enough money to build a 
house he married pretty Hannah Simpson. Their 

new home was at Point Pleasant near the Ohio 

195 



196 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

River. The country around them was rough and 
wild, and Indians prowled in the forests, but they 
did not seem to mind that. 

Young Grant whitewashed his cottage inside and 
out; he planted seeds for vines at the doorway and 
made a gravel walk to the gate. 

Hannah wove mats for the floor and put curtains 
at the windows and hung all her new bright tins on 
the wall. 

They were very happy; and on the 27th of April, 
1822, the first baby came. It was a great event for 
the whole neighborhood. 

*'A boy, is it? " said one. " Well, if he's a second 
Jesse he'll be a blessing to Clermont County." 

''Aye, and to the state, and to the United States," 
said another. 

Many names were proposed for the new comer, 
but the doting parents were not satisfied with any 
of them. 

The weeks went by. " Hello, Baby!" said Jesse, 
when he entered the house. '* Bye-bye, Baby!" he 
called when he went away. 

One day Hannah said: " It will never do. See 
what a big boy he is already. He must have a 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



197 



name. Let us drive over to father's and ask him 
about it." 

And so when baby Grant was a month old he 
was bundled up and taken to Grandfather Simp- 
son's in search of a name. 

Grandfather and grandmother and two aunts 
were at the door to receive him. How proud the 
old folks were when they looked into the round, 
blue eyes of their first grandchild! And how the 
aunts laughed and chattered as they took off his 
shawls and showed his pink little hands and feet. 

*' What is his name?" they all cried in a breath. 

"Well," said Hannah, ''Jesse wants one name 
and I want another, and you shall decide. Which 
shall it be, Albert, after Albert Gallatin, the states- 
man of Pennsylvania, or Ulysses, after the hero of 
the Greeks?" 

" Neither, daughter, neither," said Grandfather 
Simpson. " The name above all is Hiram, that of 
the king whom Solomon loved." 

'' Oh no!" cried one of the aunts, ''Theodore is 
so much prettier than either of the others." 

" Well, well," said Grandfather Simpson; " let us 
ballot for the name. Bring pen, ink and paper and 



1 98 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

write what you like on a slip. We will then put 
the ballots into a hat and shake them, and the one 
first picked out shall be the name." 

The smiling old farmer held out the hat and all 
the votes went in. Little did he think that ballots 
would ever make his grandchild president of the 
United States! 

The hat was shaken with a will. A slip was 
taken out: ''Ulysses! " said Hannah, "its just what 
I wanted." 

But the grandfather looked so disappointed that 
the child was called Hiram Ulysses. Now Hiram 
was a wise and upright ruler, and Ulysses was a 
warrior who fought for his country and then 
traveled over the whole known world. 

I am sure that when you have read about Hiram 
Ulysses Grant you will say that he resembled his 
namesakes very much. 



II. — The Home in Georgetown. 
When Ulysses was nearly a year old, Mr. Grant 
moved to Georgetown, a little village about forty 
miles east of Cincinnati. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 1 99 

He built a house near a creek which emptied 
into the Ohio river, and established a tannery to 
make skins into leather. 

Ulysses grew very fast and was petted by every- 
body. One day, when he was two years old, there 
was a celebration of some kind in Georgetown. 
Perhaps it was because John Quincy Adams had 
just been elected President of the United States. 
Many people were on the streets. Jesse Grant held 
Ulysses high up in his arms to see the procession. 

"Hello, Lyss! " said a boy with a pistol. '' Want 
to shoot? Let him fire it, Mr. Grant." 

The father put the baby fingers to the trigger. 
Bang ! went the pistol. The women screamed; 
but Ulysses did not wink or dodge. 

'' Fick it again ! Fick it again ! " he shouted in 
glee, and again the report rang out. 

'' He'll make a general, sure," said a bystander. 

Ulysses often played in the tan bark near the 
mill. He saw trading flat-boats float down the 
Ohio river loaded with apples, cider, and corn; and 
family barges carrying settlers farther west; and 
sometimes a steamer passed by, with loud whistles 
and a great deal of smoke. 



20O THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

When he was older he ground tan bark for his 
father by driving in a circle a horse hitched to the 
bark-mill. He learned to swim and dive in a deep 
hole in the creek. He skated, and trapped rabbits 
in winter; and he amused himself all the year 
round much as other boys do. 

He was not very brilliant at school. He was shy 
and slow, but because he was diligent he almost 
always succeeded in what he attempted to do. 

" Believe that you can and you can," said 
Ulysses. 

He would not lie. His honest blue eyes looked 
straight into the eyes of his playmates and they 
believed whatever he said. 

He sometimes brought his friends home with him 
to spend the night. They would gather about the 
kitchen hearth, where the fire blazed high, and 
play checkers, or tell riddles while they ate apples 
or cracked hickory nuts, and after a game of fox- 
and-geese they went to bed in the loft overhead. 

The first book that Ulysses read through was a 
Life of George Washington. Once he came near 
being punished because he defended the name of 
Washington. It came about in this way: His 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 20I 

cousin John, who Hved in Canada, made him a 
visit. Because Canada belonged to England, John 
was loyal to his king. He thought the United 
States should be an English province. 

He said to Ulysses: " Your boasted Washington 
was a traitor when he fought against King 
George." 

*' You say that again and Til thrash you," shouted 
Ulysses. 

" I do say it again," said the little Canadian. 

Both boys had pluck. Coats were off and the 
battle waxed fierce between the American eagle 
and the British lion. 

In the end John lay sprawling on the ground. 
When Ulysses went into the house his mother saw 
that he had been in a fight. She made ready to 
punish him with a birch rod. 

But his father said: " I do not think you ought 
to whip him. He has never quarreled with his 
cousin before. He fought in defense of his coun- 
try, and he ou^ht to defend his country." And so 
the boy escaped punishment. 

From the time he could walk, Ulysses showed 
great love for horses. When he was about seven 



202 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

years old he climbed to the manger, put a collar 
and harness on a young colt, and then made the 
animal haul brushwood all day long. 

At ten he drove with some leather from George- 
town to Cincinnati, and brought passengers back 
with him. He would ride bareback standing on 
one foot while his horse ran at full speed. 

Once there was much excitement about a tricky 
pony that came to town. It was said to go round 
a ring like lightning and throw anyone who tried 
to ride it. Ulysses sat among the boys as the pony 
was led out. 

"Will some one step up and ride this pony?" 
asked the jockey, smiling and bowing. 

Ulysses mounted the pony. It began to kick and 
plunge; and when the little rider kept his seat it 
ran round the ring at full speed. Then out jumped 
a monkey and sprang on the boy's shoulder and 
pulled his hair, while the pony ran faster than ever. 
Ulysses sat bolt upright. 

He did not smile nor look to the right or the 
left. The monkey chattered; the pony drooped 
its ears; and everybody laughed as the mortified 
jockey led them away. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



203 



III. — The West Point Cadet. 

One day when Ulysses was busy in the tannery 
his father said: " My son, I believe you are going 
to receive the appointment." 

'' What appointment, father?" 

" To West Point. I have applied for it." 

Ulysses knew that a boy had just failed in the 
examination at West Point. He was afraid lest he 
also would fail, and so he said: ''I don't want to 
go, father." 

" But I wish it," said his father. 

'' Well, then, I suppose I shall go," he replied. 
He studied hard to prepare for the examination. 

The people of Georgetown could scarcely believe 
that Lyss Grant was going to West Point. They 
looked upon him as a dull boy who cared only for 
horses, and they laughed at the idea of his wear- 
ing brass buttons and shoulder straps. 

In 1839, when he was just seventeen years old, 
Ulysses set out for Ripley, which was the landing 
for the steamboat bound for Pittsburg. 

He wore a new suit of clothes and had a hundred 
dollars in his pocket; but, for all that, his courage 
was at a low ebb. If he failed in examination he 



204 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



would only be making the long journey to bring 
disgrace on his family. 

When he reached Pittsburg he took the canal 
boat to Harrisburg ; then he rode in a railroad car 
to Philadelphia. The train traveled at the rate of 
twelve miles an hour, which seemed to be wonder- 
fully fast. 

At Philadelphia he called on his aunts. They 
made much of him and showed him about the 
Quaker City. He visited Carpenters' Hall where 
the first Continental Congress had met, and Fed- 
eral Hall where President Washington had deliv- 
ered his famous farewell address before Congress, 
and where John Adams had been inaugurated the 
second president of the United States. He went 
to the graveyard on Arch street where Benjamin 
Franklin lay buried, and he saw the old Penn man- 
sion where Benedict Arnold, who became a traitor 
to his country, once lived with his beautiful Tory 
wife. 

Ulysses wished he might stay longer in Philadel- 
phia ; but he was obliged to say good-bye to his 
kind aunts. He was soon in New York City. 

And then one bright May morning he stepped 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 2O5 

on a steamboat and was carried up the Hudson 
River. When someone at his elbow said that the 
low buildings on the left bank were the West Point 
barracks his heart sank within him. He dreaded 
the examination very much. 

At last the trial was over. Young Grant was 
found to be sound in body and more than five feet 
high and he answered enough questions for admis- 
sion to West Point. 

This meant that he could enter one of the best 
schools in the country. The United States gov- 
ernment would pay him for learning to be a 
trained soldier and a polished gentleman ; and 
when he had finished his studies he would receive 
a commission in the regular army. 

Hiram Ulysses Grant was enrolled as Ulysses 
Simpson Grant through a mistake of the congress- 
man who appointed him to the position. Ulysses 
tried to have the name changed ; but he was called 
Ulysses Simpson the rest of his life. 

Most of the cadets received nicknames. One 
was called "Dad" because his hair was turning gray; 
another " Doc " because he had clerked in a drug 
store ; another " Chub " because he was stout. 



206 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Ulysses was called " Uncle Sam " because his 
initials were *'U. S." 

He was, at first, put into the awkward squad, and 
a few snobs called him '' mudsill " when they saw 
how awkward he was. 

But he had no false pride to be hurt ; and he was 
always so modest and manly that he soon won the 
respect of all. 

There was much to do at West Point. The 
drum beat at five o'clock in the morning and the 
infantry drilled five days in the week. The lessons 
were long and difficult. There were maps of 
battlefields to draw, bridges to make, forts to 
build and intrenchments to fortify. There was 
engineering practice and artillery and cavalry drill. 

Ulysses was the most daring rider in his class. 
" Old York " was a famous horse in camp which 
only one other besides himself dared to mount. 

When seated on Old York he cleared a fence six 
feet and three inches high, which was the most 
noted leap ever made in the school. 

Grant was four years at West Point. He 
marched in review before President Martin Van 
Buren ; but whenever he saw General Winfield 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 20/ 

Scott ride about the drill ground on his splendid 
horse he thought he would rather be a general 
than a president. 

When Grant was graduated he received a com- 
mission as lieutenant of the 4th infantry regiment 
of Ohio. 

He returned home for a vacation before going 
to camp with the regular army. His friends in 
Georgetown found him much changed. He was 
taller and straighter, and his dress was always neat. 

At first he took pride in wearing his full uniform; 
but one day his pride had a fall. As he was return- 
ing home from a stroll, in fine humor with himself 
he saw a drunken stable boy parading in front of 
his house. The fellow's ragged shirt was adorned 
with brass buttons and his nankeen pantaloons had 
a white stripe sewed down the seams. He wore 
neither hat nor shoes ; but he held his head very 
high and marched up and down with the stately 
step of the new lieutenant, while street urchins 
cheered him on. 

This parade taught Grant a lesson, and he 
resolved to wear his uniform only when duty 
required it. 



2o8 THE STOR V OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 

IV. — The Mexican War. 

Lieutenant Grant began military service for 
the United States in 1843. The standing army 
numbered about ten thousand men. The troops 
were scattered in small squads about the country ; 
for we were at peace with all the world except the 
Indians. 

Grant was sent with the 4th infantry regiment to 
Missouri. He went on duty at Jefferson barracks, 
near St. Louis. The Indians did not make much 
trouble, and camp life was dull ; but he spent many 
pleasant evenings in St. Louis at the home of the 
Dents. 

Pretty little Julia Dent was the sister of his West 
Point roommate, and Grant soon became her 
devoted admirer. 

It was not long before there was much talk 
about the new state of Texas. Texas had once 
been a part of Mexico. When Santa Anna became 
president of that republic he was so unpopular that 
the Texans refused to live under his rule. They 
set up a republic of their own with Samuel 
Houston, an American, as president. 

Then Santa Anna marched his army across the 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 209 

Rio Grande River to conquer the rebellious 
province ; but he was forced to march back 
again. 

France, England, and the United States acknowl- 
edged the independence of Texas. Most of the 
citizens in that country were Americans, and they 
soon asked that their state might be annexed to 
the United States. 

The people of the South wanted Texas admitted 
to the Union. It was a fine cotton country, it had 
a long sea coast for shipping to foreign ports, and 
it might be divided into several slave states. 

But the people of the North bitterly opposed the 
admission of Texas because they did not wish 
slavery extended. 

At last near the close of President John Tyler's 
administration Texas was admitted. The new 
state soon caused trouble. A dispute arose about 
the southern boundary line. The Mexicans 
claimed that it was on the river Nueces, but the 
Texans said that it extended farther south to the 
Rio Grande. 

President James K. Polk took the side of Texas 
in the quarrel and, in 1846, he sent General 



2IO THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Zachary Taylor with an army to the disputed 
territory. 

Lieutenant Grant and his regiment hastened to 
join General Taylor. 

The Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande 
and attacked the Americans. General Taylor 
drove them back across the river. 

Grant's company guarded the artillery; the young 
lieutenant proved so useful that he was made 
quartermaster to look after supplies. 

General Taylor soon marched against Monterey. 
This was the largest city in northern Mexico. It 
lay in the midst of beautiful orchards and vineyards, 
and was guarded by ten thousand Mexican 
soldiers. 

While the battle was raging the ammunition in 
Grant's regiment gave out. Someone must order 
more. The headquarters were four miles away on 
the other side of the camp. To reach them a 
courier must ride straight through the enemy's city. 

Grant volunteered to go on the dangerous 
errand. He mounted a swift horse, hung one foot 
over the saddle and, catching hold by the mane, 
started off like a Comanche Indian. Away the 



THE STOR Y OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 2 1 1 

horse flew through the streets of Monterey, while 
muskets were being fired from all the windows. 
Neither horse nor rider was hurt, and Grant soon 
returned with a wagon load of ammunition. 

Monterey was captured, and then Grant's regi- 
ment was sent to the mouth of the Rio Grande 
to join General Winfield Scott on his way to the 
City of Mexico. 

General Scott landed with his army at Vera 
Cruz. The troops marched within sight of vol- 
canoes crowned with snow, and past ruined 
temples and pyramids, built by the Aztec Indians 
long before the Spaniards discovered Mexico. 

The army fought as it marched. The nearer it 
came to the capital the more it was opposed by the 
desperate enemy. 

Grant was always in the thickest of the fight. 
He received promotion at Molino del Rey, or the 
Mill of the King. This was a long stone fortifica- 
tion where grain was stored. While the batteries 
were bombarding the strong wall. Grant and a 
few others forced a gate, climbed to a roof, and 
captured six Mexican officers and several pri- 
vates. 



212 THE STOR V OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 

The King's Mill was taken; but between it and 
Mexico stood a high mound called Chapultepec. 
Its rocky sides were bristling with guns. The 
mound was taken after a hard fight. 

Grant, with a few volunteers, pulled a small 
cannon under an aqueduct, which carried water 
into Mexico. He crept along in the shadow of its 
pillars till he reached a church which overlooked 
the city. With his comrades he dragged the 
cannon up to the belfry and, opening fire, dislodged 
the enemy from an important position. 

" That was a brilliant idea! " exclaimed the 
commanding officer, and he sent Lieutenant Pem- 
berton to bring Grant to headquarters to receive 
his personal thanks. 

This Lieutenant Pemberton, as we shall see, 
would one day be defeated by Grant on quite 
another field of battle. 

Major Robert E. Lee made special mention of 
Grant in his report on Chapultepec. " Second 
Lieutenant Grant," he said "behaved with dis- 
tinguished gallantry." Major Lee little thought 
that he would be defeated by Grant on many 
fields of battle. 



The stor y of ul ysses s. grant. 2 1 3 

Mexico surrendered. When General Scott 
entered the city Grant was at his side 

The army went into camp while waiting for a 
treaty of peace to be signed. Grant was still 
quartermaster. The soldiers were ragged, and he 
set Mexican tailors to work on new uniforms. 
Provisions were almost gone and he rented a 
stone bakery, bought flour and fuel, and hired 
Mexican bakers to make bread. 

He managed the funds of the regiment so well 
that he saved money enough to furnish a band of 
musicians and provide other luxuries. 

You may be sure that he was popular with his 
men. Meanwhile he visited the places of interest 
in the quaint old city. He went to one of the bull 
fights, where horsemen, armed with long spears, 
tortured wild bulls to death; but the sight of such 
cruelty made him sick and he would not stay to 
watch it. 

He climbed Mount Popocatepetl and was lost 
with some comrades, in a storm, for several hours. 
One of the party was Captain Buckner who would 
one day surrender an army to Grant. But, of 
course, neither of them ever thought of such a 



214 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



thing as that, and they had many a jaunt together 
among the, ruins of old Mexico. 

In 1848 the treaty of Guadalupe was signed. 
There was peace again between Mexico and the 
United States. Grant set sail with his regiment, 
and was soon home again. 

He was just twenty-six years old. He had 
served under the best officers in the army; he had 
seen cities besieged and stout forts carried by 
storm, and he had become acquainted with most 
of the military men in the country. 

The knowledge gained in the Mexican war was 
to be of great service to him later on. 



V. — On the Pacific Coast. 
Soon after Lieutenant Grant's return from the 
Mexican war he married Julia Dent of St. Louis. 
They lived wherever the 4th regiment was 
stationed, until 1852, when the regiment was 
ordered to California. Grant then told his young 
wife that she must remain at home. He said that 
the Pacific coast was so far off that she must not 



THE STOR Y OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 2 1 5 

even expect a letter for several months. There 
was a sad parting when he set out on his journey. 
Now before you could possibly guess why 
Grant's regiment was sent to the coast you must 
know, what wonderful events had occurred since 
the treaty with Mexico. 

By that treaty upper California, with a great 
deal of other land, was ceded to the United States. 

California had good harbors and a fertile soil, 
but it was so far from the states that no one 
thought it would ever be very thickly settled. 

Hardly was the treaty signed, however, when 
it was reported that gold had been discovered 
near the Sacramento River. The news spread 
round the world. San Francisco, a sleepy little 
Spanish mission with a few mud cabins, became a 
city of many thousands within a year. 

Americans, Mexicans, Germans, Frenchmen, 
Englishmen, and Chinamen flocked into California 
and scattered over the gold fields. 

Saloons and gambling-houses were every where. 
The reckless miners provoked the Indians to go 
on the warpath; and then helpless citizens called 
on the government for protection. And so it 



2 1 6 THE STOR V OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 

came about that Grant's regiment was ordered to 
California. 

There was no railroad to the coast in those 
days. The journey across the prairies and over 
the mountains was so slow and so dangerous that 
the troops went by way of the Isthmus of Panama- 
They set sail at New York and landed at Aspin- 
wall. 

Now, today, a swift train of cars crosses the 
isthmus from Aspinwall to Panama City; but in 
1852 there was no railroad, and it sometimes took 
weeks to make the journey. 

The regiment began its slow march in the hot 
month of July. Poisonous vapors lurked in the 
marshes and a fever broke out. Grant was still 
quartermaster. He furnished food and fresh 
water; distributed medicines, and fought the 
plague as best he could. But more than fifty of 
his comrades died. 

When the survivors of the 4th regiment reached 
California they went into camp near San Fran- 
cisco. They helped restore order among the 
miners, and scattered the Indians to their wig- 
wams. 



THE STOR Y OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 2 1 7 

Then Grant's company was stationed at Van- 
couver, at that time in Oregon Territory. People 
in the East were emigrating more and more to the 
West. It was said that a railroad ought to be 
built to the coast, and several surveying parties 
were sent out by the government to examine the 
different routes. 

In 1853 Lieutenant George B. McClellan came 
to Vancouver with some engineers to make a 
survey for a Northern Pacific railroad. 

Grant had been with McClellan in the Mexican 
war, and was delighted to meet him again. He 
lodged him in his best tent, and gave him his 
fleetest horse to ride. Grant was a fine host. 
When his army friends gathered about him none 
described the Mexican campaign so well as he. 

After one of the talks an officer said : " How 
clear headed Grant is in describing a battle ! He 
seems to see the whole thing." 

But in all the talks around the camp fire he 
never said anything he would be ashamed for his 
mother to hear. When an officer was about to 
repeat a story, and said, as he looked around: 
''There are no ladies here — ." 



2 1 8 THE STOR V OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 

" No," said Grant, "but there are gentlemen!'' 
and the bad story was never told. 

After a time Lieutenant Grant was made cap- 
tain of a company in California. But camp life 
on the frontier was dull; the pay was not enough 
to support his family on the coast, where every- 
thing was very expensive, and he felt that he 
could not always be separated from his loved 
ones. 

And so, in 1854, Captain Grant resigned his 
commission in the army. He said to a friend, as 
he started for home, '* Whoever hears from me 
in ten years will probably hear of a well-to-do 
Missouri farmer." 



VI. — Farmer and Leather Merchant. 

When Grant landed in New York he was 
obliged to send to his father for money to get 
home. He was thirty-two . years old. He knew 
no profession except that of the army, and he 
had a wife and children to support. 

Mrs. Grant owned a small farm near St. Louis, 
and here he decided to try to make a living. He 



THE STOR y OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 2 I Q 

hewed logs and built a house, which he called 
" Hardscrabble." 

A hard scrabble, indeed, did the army officer 
have in his efforts to make a farmer of himself. 

In the spring he plowed the ground, and sowed 
and planted his grain; in the summer he mowed 
and threshed his wheat; and when winter came 
he gathered his corn, and cut wood to sell at four 
dollars a cord. 

But in spite of his work he could not succeed, 
because he did not know how to manage. His 
horses and machinery cost so much, and the prod- 
ucts of his farm brought so little, that, at the end of 
three years, he was two thousand dollars in debt. 

The crops had to be sold, and the horses and 
implements put up at auction. The neighbors 
loitered about the place while the auctioneer 
called off the sales. 

They found the stable well kept, and the horses 
in fine condition; Grant had learned how to do 
such work at West Point; but the thrifty farmers 
shook their heads when they saw that the plows 
were rusty and broken, and the grain bins were 
almost empty. 



220 THE STOkY OF ULYSSES S. GkANT. 

"Grant is a good fellow," they said; "but he 
was never cut out to be one of us! " 

After everything was sold, Grant tried to get 
employment in St. Louis. He first went into the 
real estate business. He was so quiet and so shy 
that he could not make bargains. Then he tried 
to get an appointment as county engineer. He 
was too little known to the politicians, and so 
some one more favored than he received the 
office. 

He worked in various ways to make a living for 
his family, but fortune seemed to frown upon 
him. When his father heard of his desperate 
straits he cast about to find how he might help 
him. 

He wrote to a son who was in the leather busi- 
ness at Galena, Illinois, and told him of his 
brother's ill luck. 

"Give Ulysses a chance, my boy," he said, "I 
may have spoiled him at West Point." 

It was not long before Grant was clerking in 
the leather store at Galena. He was to receive 
only a few hundred dollars the first year. If he 
made a good salesman, his salary would then 



THE STOR Y OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 221 

be increased. He went quietly about his tasks, 
and expected to be a leather merchant the rest 
of his life. 



VII. — The War for the Union. 

It was in the year i860 that Grant went into the 
leather business. There was great excitement in 
Galena over the national conventions. Two citi- 
zens of Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas and Abra- 
ham Lincoln, were candidates for President of the 
United States. 

One branch of the Democratic party nominated 
Douglas. The Democrats were then in power, 
with James Buchanan as President of the United 
States. 

The Republican party nominated Lincoln. It 
was a new party, and had once been defeated. 

If the Democratic party had been united Doug- 
las would have felt sure of being elected. Lincoln 
was not sure about his own election; but he said 
that his party was in the right, and if it did not 
win this time it would the next. The chief ques- 
tion between the two parties was whether slavery 
should be allowed in the territories. 



222 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The United States owned several territories 
which had not yet been made into states. Douglas 
declared that the citizens of a territory had the 
right to say whether it should be a slave or a free 
state when it came into the Union. 

Lincoln denied this. He said that the govern- 
ment of the United States had control of its terri- 
tories before they became states. He quoted the 
Declaration of Independence — that all men are 
" endowed by their Creator with life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness," and he said that 
Washington and Jefferson had intended that gov- 
ernment land should be free soil. 

Many of the people in the North agreed with 
Lincoln. '* He is right," they said. " Look at 
Europe. Every respectable nation in Europe has 
set its slaves free. America boasts that she is the 
' land of the free and the home of the brave,' 
and stamps Liberty on her coins, yet four million 
human beings are kept as slaves within her bor- 
ders. We cannot prevent slavery in the old states, 
but let us forbid it in the new states." 

In the end the Republicans elected Abraham 
Lincoln. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 223 

Before he was inaugurated, South Carolina 
seceded from the Union. Perhaps you will 
remember that, in 1832, South Carolina tried to 
secede from the Union and President Andrew 
Jackson prevented it by sending a warship to 
Charleston. 

But James Buchanan was a very different kind of 
president. He allowed other states to join South 
Carolina. They established a government of their 
own which they called the Confederate States of 
America, with Jefferson Davis as president. 

The members of Congress from the Confederate 
States; the secretaries in Buchanan's Cabinet; and 
many officers in the army and navy resigned their 
places and took oath to support the new govern- 
ment. 

Most of the forts in the South, which belonged 
to the United States, were seized by the Confed- 
erates. The commander of Fort Sumter in 
Charleston Harbor was Robert Anderson. He 
was a brave soldier and had been wounded at 
Chapultepec while fighting by the side of Grant. 

Major Anderson refused to surrender his fort. 
The whole world waited to see what Abraham 



224 



THE STOR V OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 



Lincoln would do when he became President. He 
was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1861. 

In his speech he said: " I shall take care that the 
laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the 
states. In doing this there need be no bloodshed 
or violence, and there shall be none unless it be 
forced upon the national authority." 

Very soon after this the Confederates again 
demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter. Major 
Anderson stoutly refused and kept the Stars and 
Stripes waving on the flagstaff. At last the Con- 
federates fired on the fort. 

When the people in the North heard that the 
flag of the Union had been dishonored, they for- 
got all about the slavery question and united to 
defend the honor of the United States govern- 
ment. 

One young Democrat in Galena, who had voted 
against Lincoln for President, said : " I am not a 
Democrat now, nor a Republican, either; I am an 
American and will defend our flag! " 

When President Lincoln called for 75,000 volun- 
teers so many enrolled at Galena that a company 
was formed immediately. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 225 

Grant quit the leather store. He said: " The 
United States educated me for the army. What I 
am I owe to my country. I have served her 
through one war and, live or die, I will serve her 
through this." 

He drilled the Galena company and helped them 
get their blue uniforms ready. 

He was soon called to Springfield and made col- 
onel of the 2 1st Illinois regiment of infantry. The 
men were disorderly. Their former colonel had 
been dismissed because he could not control them. 

When Grant appeared before them on the drill- 
ground he was in citizen's dress. He looked 
shabby and seemed so modest that they began to 
jeer at him. "Speech! Speech!" they cried. 

" Soldiers," said Grant, " go to your quarters." 
His tones were so commanding that they obeyed. 
It was not long before they said: ** Grant knows 
what he is about. We can't scare him or deceive 
him." 

The 2 1 St regiment was ordered to Missouri to 
guard the railroads. Grant did not transport his 
troops on the cars. He knew they must become 
accustomed to long marches. 



226 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

" My first marching should be in a friendly coun- 
try," he said. 

He drilled his men on the way to Missouri and 
taught them to obey every one of his com- 
mands. 

At this very time the Confederates at Richmond, 
Virginia, were wondering who would be the officers 
m the armies of the North. 

'* There is one West Pointer," said General 
Beauregard, '' whom I hope the Northern people 
will not find out; I mean 'Sam' Grant. I knew 
him well at West Point and in Mexico. I should 
fear him more than any other man they have. He 
is clear headed, quick, and daring." 



VIII. — Forts Henry and Donelson. 

It was not long until the Northern people did 
find out " Sam " Grant. After several skirmishes 
with the Confederates he was made brigadier-gen- 
eral with headquarters at Cairo, Illinois. 

Missouri and Kentucky were still in the Union; 
but they were slave states. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT 



227 



'* Missouri must be ours," said the Confederates; 
" for the lead mines for our bullets are there, and 
most of the slaveholders will help us." 

They hurried guns and troops to Columbus, in 
Kentucky, which stood on a high bluff overlooking 
the Missouri shore. 

'' Kentucky must belong to us, too," they said. 
'* It must be our vanguard on the border of three 
Union states." 

They planted guns at Fort Henry on the Ten- 
nessee, and at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, 
and along the east bank of the Mississippi. Then 
they stretched their armies from the great river to 
the Atlantic ocean." 

** The Yankees cannot invade the South by land 
or water," said the men in gray. 

" We must see about that," said General 
Grant. 

He laid plans with Commodore Foote who com- 
manded the gunboats on the Ohio. Soon a fleet of 
boats steamed up the Tennessee with transports. 
Grant, with seventeen thousand men in blue, was 
landed four miles below the fort. 

And while the army marched by land, the gun- 



228 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

boats proceeded up the river to the fort. Shot and 
shell plowed through its earthworks and crippled 
its mounted guns. 

The Confederates saw that it was useless to try 
to hold Fort Henry. They raised the white flag of 
surrender. But the smoke was so dense it could 
not be seen. The firing from the boats continued 
and then two thousand Confederates fled in a panic 
to Fort Donelson, twelve miles away. 

In the meantime Grant was hurrying up with his 
army as fast as he could. The ground was wet 
from a heavy rain. His progress was so slow that 
when he reached the fort, the Stars and Stripes 
were waving on its flagstaff. 

*' Can you do as well as that at Donelson ? " asked 
General Grant of Commodore Foote. 

'* I shall do my best to help you take the fort," 
replied the brave seaman. 

The Confederates were determined to hold Fort 
Donelson. It guarded the Cumberland River, 
which led up to Nashville, where their armies in 
the West had headquarters. It was strongly in- 
trenched on a bend of the river. Back of a line of 
batteries at the water's edge were rifle pits; beyond 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 229 

these were stretches of felled trees, and above all 
towered a broad bluff well guarded with cannon. 

Grant marched toward the fort. The gunboats 
steamed down the Tennessee, then up the Ohio 
and then up the Cumberland. When Commodore 
Foote came near the fort he opened fire; but 
his shots were answered with shots from the bat- 
teries until nearly every gunboat was crippled. 

The Union soldiers surrounded the fort, and for 
three days there was hard fighting. Then Grant 
secured a commanding position overlooking the 
fortifications. That night the Union army slept 
well. It was sure of victory on the next day. 

But there was no sleeping in the great fort. 
Lights were moving all night long. Early next 
morning a negro came into the Union camp saying 
he had some news for " de gen'l." 

" Dey's been a goin' all night! " 

''What?" said Grant; *' leaving the fort?" 

''Yes, Massa, ef I's don't tell de truf I'll hang. 
Dey's been a goin' all night." 

The old negro was right. Many Confederates 
had escaped under cover of the night. 

General Buckner was in command of the fort. 



230 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

He knew Grant well. He was the same Buckner 
that had been lost in a storm with him on Mount 
Popocatepetl, and he understood what kind of a 
person he had to oppose. 

"It is useless to hold out against such a man as 
Grant," he said. '* He will never retreat. I must 
surrender, but I'll get the best terms I can." 

So he wrote a letter asking favorable terms. 
Grant promptly replied: " No terms, except 
unconditional and immediate surrender, can be 
accepted. I propose to move immediately upon 
your works." 

General Buckner and fourteen thousand men 
laid down their arms as prisoners of war. 

When the news of the fall of Donelson reached 
the North, people could hardly believe it. 

'* Who is this Grant? " they asked. 

*' I remember a little lieutenant who won laurels 
in the war with Mexico," said General Winfield 
Scott; " his name was U. S. Grant." 

" The ' U. S.' stands for Unconditional Sur- 
render!" said the delighted people. 

Grant was soon afterwards made major 
general. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



231 



IX. — Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing. 

After the surrender of forts Henry and Donel- 
son the Confederates abandoned Columbus, Ken- 
tucky, and Nashville, Tennessee. They hurried to 
Corinth, a little town in northern Mississippi, where 
they collected large stores of food and ammunition. 
They planned to cross the Ohio and carry war into 
the North. 

General Grant heard that a large army was 
collecting at Corinth. 

" This army must not go North," he said to his 
generals. 

He sent to Nashville for more troops and trans- 
ported his army up the Tennessee to Pittsburg 
Landing, about twenty miles from Corinth. Here 
he went into camp while waiting for the Nashville 
troops. His lines stretched out several miles. 

One night the Confederates marched from 
Corinth. General Albert Sidney Johnston was in 
command. He made a quick attack upon one wing 
of Grant's army at Shiloh Church, three miles from 
Pittsburg Landing. 

It was just daylight. The cooks in the Union 
camp were stirring the camp fires for breakfast. 



232 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The arms were stacked and many soldiers were 
still asleep. 

Shot and shell tore through the tents. Some 
were killed in their beds; some fled in a panic; but 
the most of the men seized their guns and made a 
bold stand. 

Grant was several miles away when he heard the 
roar of the cannon. He took a boat for the front 
and was soon in the midst of the battle. The men 
fell, dead and wounded, around him; a ball struck 
the scabbard of his sword and broke it off; but he 
hurried from one company to another, urging them 
forward. 

All day the battle raged. The Union army was 
driven slowly back to the landing. Despair was 
written on every face. Suddenly cheer on cheer 
arose. Buell's army from Nashville was seen on 
the opposite bank of the river. 

Union gunboats hurled shells upon the pursuing 
enemy as evening came on; but the battle of Shiloh 
seemed won by the Confederates. 

" What preparations have you made for sur- 
render?" asked General Buell, as he sat with 
Grant in his tent. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 233 

"I have not given up hope of victory yet," 
replied Grant. 

During most of the night he and his generals 
formed their lines for the morning. 

Now the Confederates expected that the blue 
coats would be fleeing for safety down the river; 
but when the sun rose, there stood the Union army 
in battle array. The struggle began again. The 
Confederates were driven back until they had lost 
all they had won the day before. When night 
came on again, the Union troops threw themselves 
down on the ground to sleep. The Confederates 
returned to Corinth. In a few weeks they retreated 
from Corinth. Then Union troops and gunboats 
moved down the Mississippi River, defeated the 
Confederate ironclads and took possession of 
Memphis. The states north of the Ohio were safe. 

Grant was given command of the Department 
of Tennessee and made his headquarters at 
Corinth. 

X. — ViCKSBURG. 

All this time there had been fighting at the 
mouth of the Mississippi. Commodore Farragut 



234 "^^^ STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ascended the river, bombarded the forts, and 
captured New Orleans. 

Farragut then wished to join Grant up the river; 
but Port Hudson stood in the way. 

Grant wished to join Farragut down the river; 
but Vicksburg stood in the way. 

Between these two forts the Confederates had 
control of the country. They brought flour and 
cattle from Texas and Louisiana to feed their 
armies. 

'* No gunboats can pass Vicksburg without my 
consent," said General Pemberton whose army 
guarded the batteries along the waters edge. 

"We'll see about that," said General Grant; ''I 
think we shall now split the Confederacy in two, 
and the wedge that shall do it will be my army at 
Vicksburg." 

He marched his troops from Corinth to 
Memphis, and, floating down the river, he landed a 
few miles above Vicksburg. Before him were high 
bluffs and a dense forest, bristling with guns. It 
was quite out of the question to reach the fort 
from the north. 

*' We must attack it from the south," said Grant. 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 235 

" Impossible! " exclaimed his generals. 

Vicksburg stood on a bend of the river and was 
guarded for eight miles with batteries. There 
seemed no way to carry provisions past the fort. 

'' We will coax the river to change its old bed," 
said Grant. 

He set thousands of men to digging a broad 
canal across the neck of land opposite Vicksburg. 
They worked for several months. 

But the summer sun melted the snows in the 
mountains. The Ohio, the Missouri, and the 
Arkansas rolled in floods into the Mississippi, and 
then the great river overflowed its banks and 
filled the canal. The troops were obliged to flee 
for their lives. 

" Ha! ha! " cried men in the South. "Even the 
* Father of Waters' is helping us." 

" Shame! shame! " said men in the North. " Our 
armies are wasting time making ditches." 

Some busy bodies went to Washington and said 
to President Lincoln: " Remove Grant from com- 
mand and put a r^^/ general in his place." 

But the President replied: " I rather like the 
man. I think I will try him a little longer." 



236 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Grant did not say a word when he heard about 
the complaints. He had his plans. He knew very 
well that if these plans failed he would be removed 
from command. 

He called an old boatman to his tent. " Can I 
run my transports past the batteries on a very dark 
night?" 

" It might be done, general; but it's a great risk 
you'd be taking." 

"I'll take the risk," said Grant to himself. 

He had a talk with Admiral Porter who com- 
manded the gunboats, and then he crossed the 
Mississippi with his army. He marched down the 
west bank and halted south of Vicksburg. 

The terrible fort now shut off supplies. 

" Grant has put his army into a death trap! " cried 
his enemies in the North. Even President Lincoln 
thought perhaps he had made a mistake. But 
Grant's plans were not yet complete. He was 
waiting for Porter. 

One very dark night three transports were made 
ready. They were fashioned wide and long to 
carry supplies. Their boilers were padded with 
cotton and wet hay that could not easily be pene- 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



237 



trated by bullets; their engines were oiled that 
every joint might work its best; and their fires 
were screened that their light might be hid. 

Then eight of Porter's gunboats sailed out, like 
angry monsters, before Vicksburg. The transports 
ran at full speed behind their shelter. The Con- 
federate guards saw the gunboats. Bonfires were 
built on the shore. It was as light as day on the 
river. Shot and shell screamed through the air; 
but on sped the provision boats, while Porter's 
guns answered those on the shore. 

One of the transports was burned; but the others 
passed the batteries, followed closely by the gun- 
boats. At daybreak the little fleet sailed up to 
Grant's camp, on the west bank of the river; and 
men and supplies were soon across the river. 

Friendly negroes guided the army as it fought 
its way toward Vicksburg. Pemberton, with his 
troops, was soon shut up inside the city. A siege 
was begun. Shot poured into Vicksburg until 
the citizens had to dig caves and cellars for 
shelter. Pemberton must have remembered the 
cannonading in the belfry of the old church in 
front of Mexico! 



238 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The weeks went by, and at last the Confeder- 
ates were starving. 

*' We will escape by the river," said Pemberton. 

Houses were torn down to build rafts; but the 
gunboats drove the rafts back. 

" We will flee in the night by way of unfre- 
quented roads," said Pemberton; but two hundred 
cannons were guarding those roads. 

Grant's army lay coiled around the city like a 
huge serpent guarding its prey. And, at last, on 
the 4th of July, 1863, General Pemberton made 
an unconditional surrender. 

When Admiral Porter saw the Union flag waving 
from the ramparts of the city, he hurried his gun- 
boats beneath the friendly walls. And fleet and 
army celebrated Independence Day in Vicksburg. 

" It's Grant again," said the people of the North, 
when they heard the good news. " It's Uncon- 
ditional Surrender Grant! " 

President Lincoln wrote: " My Dear General: 
I do not remember that you and I ever met per- 
sonally. I write this now as a grateful acknowl- 
edgment for the almost inestimable service you 
have done the country." 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



239 



Grant was given command of all the armies in 
the West. 



X I .—Chattanooga. 

While Grant and other generals were fighting 
in the West, war had been raging in the East. 
Washington, the capital of the United States, and 
Richmond, the capital of the Confederate States, 
were both well guarded. 

When Robert E. Lee became commander of 
the army at Richmond, he asked for more clothing 
and food for his soldiers. 

'* If General Lee wants supplies, let him find 
them in the North," said the Confederate com- 
missary general. 

Lee crossed the Potomac River and marched 
into Pennsylvania. He was met by General 
Meade at Gettysburg and driven back into Vir- 
ginia, just one day before the surrender of Vicks- 
burg. 

•* We must keep Lee in Virginia," said Grant 
when he heard of it. 

He began to gather his forces together to march 
toward Virginia. On the line of march lay Chat- 



240 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

tanooga, where General Rosecrans, with a Union 
army, was shut up by the Confederates. There 
seemed no way for him to escape. On the north 
of the city was the Tennessee River, on the east, 
south, and west were high mountains, with cannons 
guarding all the passes. 

" We must get the boys out of Chattanooga," 
said Grant. With Sherman, Sheridan, and other 
brave officers he led his armies to an assault. 

They stormed up the mountain sides. Some of 
the fighting on Lookout Mountain was so high 
that the engagement is called the " battle above 
the clouds." 

The Confederates were routed completely, and 
the starving army was fed. When the news of 
the victory at Chattanooga reached the North, 
there was the wildest excitement. 

*' Unconditional Surrender Grant has a^ better 
name now," cried the people. " It is Uniformly 
Successful Grant! " 

Congress ordered a gold medal for the con- 
queror; and some congressmen said, "Washington 
fought for the independence of our states; Grant 
is fighting for their union. Washington was 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



241 



lieutenant-general of the army, let us revive the 
grade for Grant." 

And so the hero was summoned North to receive 
his new title. Special trains carried him to Wash- 
ington. At every station crowds gathered to 
see him. He bore his honors with modesty, and, 
when he reached the capital, went quietly to a 
hotel. Few persons knew that he was there. 

While he sat unnoticed in the dining room a 
gentleman recognized him, and when it was whis- 
pered about who the stranger was, cheers re- 
sounded through the hall; he could hardly return 
to his room for the crowd. 

Lincoln, when he handed him his commission as 
lieutenant-general, said: "As the country herein 
trusts you, so, under God, will it sustain you." 

Grant felt very serious at that moment. It 
seemed that the success of the Union arms 
depended on his skill. And when some fashion- 
able ladies of Washington wished to give a ball in 
his honor, he said: "Ladies, I wish to ask you, 
in all kindness, if this is a time for music and 
feasting among the officials of the army. 

" Do dances soothe our sick and wounded ? 



242 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



Do they inspire our troops with courage in the 
field?" 

You may be sure that the ball was not given. 



XII. — The Close of the War. 

" We must work together," said Lieutenant- 
General Grant, "but we must keep the enemy 
divided." 

He planned a campaign with General Sherman, 
and then hurried to the East to take command of 
the Army of the Potomac. 

Sherman defeated the Confederates in the 
West, and then marched toward the sea. His 
army was in four columns covering a belt of coun- 
try sixty miles wide. He destroyed bridges, rail- 
roads, and provisions, so that no aid could be sent 
to Lee at Richmond. 

It was a terrible thing to do; but there seemed 
to be no other way of ending the war. When 
Sherman reached Savannah he went into winter 
quarters to wait until Grant might need him. 

All this time Grant was fighting around Rich- 
mond. Some of the battles were in such a wilder- 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



243 



ness that the armies could not stand in line; but 
shot and shell shrieked through the gloomy shade. 
The loss of life was so frightful that many 
thought Grant should abandon the siege around 
Richmond. 

But Grant said: "I propose to fight it out on 
this line if it takes all summer." 

This was not because he was careless about the 
loss of so many brave soldiers. When news came 
that one gallant officer had fallen, he sat alone 
and sobbed. The whole army knew of his sorrow, 
and the band gathered at the door of his tent to 
play a funeral dirge. 

The slaughter of battle was as dreadful to Grant 
as to any one else; yet he knew that the cruel war 
must be ended by desperate fighting. 

At last his army surrounded Lee's army. On 
the 9th of April, 1865, Lee surrendered at Appo- 
mattox Court House, about seventy-five miles from 
Richmond. 

The two generals met at a farm house to agree 
upon terms. Lee wore an elegant new uniform, 
with a sword at his side. Grant was in plain sol- 
dier's blouse, and without a sword. He did not 



244 ^-^^ STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



wish to make a display of authority before his 
unhappy countrymen. 

He gave generous terms of surrender. No men 
were kept as prisoners, and all were allowed to 
keep their horses. 

'* They will need them to work their little 
farms," he said. 

There was rejoicing in the North and in the 
South that the conflict was over. But the joy was 
turned to grief when President Lincoln was assas- 
sinated. He had been Grant's best friend, and 
it was with a sad heart that the victorious general 
marched his army into Washington. 

Vice-President Johnson had become President, 
and before him the troops passed in review. 
Then they went to their own states to return to 
their shops and farms. 

General Grant went to his home in Galena, 
Illinois. The grateful people all over the country 
raised large sums of money for him. The citizens 
of Galena presented him an elegant house, and 
those of Boston sent him a library of rare books. 

Congress created for him the grade of General. 
Even Washington did not receive such a high 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



245 



military title as that. Then some began to say that 
U. S. stood for " United States," and that it would 
be a graceful act to make U. S. Grant President of 
the United States. 



XIII. — President of the United States. 

Andrew Johnson was a very unpopular President, 
and when the time came for the national conven- 
tion the Republicans nominated General Grant to 
succeed him. 

During the campaign which followed, he did not 
go about making speeches. 

'' No terms except unconditional surrender." 

'' I shall fight it out on this line if it takes all 
summer." 

" The men will need their horses to work their 
little farms." 

''The people of the South are again our 
countrymen." 

'' Let us have peace " These were some of 

the speeches he had made during the four years' 
war and the people remembered them. 

They elected him President and he was inaugu- 



246 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



rated March 4, 1869. His first term was so suc- 
cessful that he was elected for a second term. 

When the year 1876 came, Congress decided to 
celebrate the centennial of the Declaration of 
Independence by giving a World's Fair. 

You can guess why Philadelphia was chosen for 
the Fair. All the foreign nations were invited. 
Some said that the monarchs of Europe would not 
take part in such a parade over the birthday of a 
republic. But they did. 

Even Queen Victoria sent laces and other 
beautiful things to this Fair which celebrated the 
day when our patriots refused to obey her tyranni- 
cal grandfather. 

The Centennial Exposition helped to unite the 
people of the North and the South more than any- 
thing else had done since the war. Those from 
South Carolina remembered how their forefathers 
had sent rice to Boston when King George had 
shut up her port. Those from Virginia recalled 
how Patrick Henry had spoken in Philadelphia for 
liberty and George Washington had fought for 
liberty and Union. 

The Fair lasted for six months ; but, of course. 



THE STOR Y Of UL YSSES S. GRANT. 



247 




248 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the great day was the 4th of July. President 
Grant was present then, and stood on a reviewing 
stand while a grand procession passed. He 
received the foreign guests with dignity, and won 
the praise of all by his plain common sense. 

The people were so proud of him that some 
declared he must serve for a third term. But 
Grant remembered the example of Washington 
and Jefferson. He said : " I will not serve again. 
There are many others as worthy as I." 

Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, was elected Pres- 
ident and, after his inauguration, General Grant 
returned to his home in Galena. 



XIV. — The Travels of Ulysses. 

It is said that after he had served his country all 
he could, the Greek Ulysses wandered over the 
known world ; and that is just what his American 
namesake did. 

While Grant was President his only daughter, 
Nellie, married an English gentleman. And now 
that his public duties were over, he resolved to pay 
her a visit. So he set sail from Philadelphia with 
his wife and one son. 



THE STORY OF UL YSSES S. GRANT. 



249 



When Queen Victoria learned that Grant was 
coming to England she did not know just what to 
do. She asked her ministers : *' Shall we receive 
him as a ruler or as a private citizen?" 

Ex-presidents Martin Van Buren and Millard Fill- 
more had both traveled abroad as private citizens. 

But just at this time Lord Beaconsfield was 
prime minister in England. He had once been a 
commoner yet he had more power at court than any 
nobleman in the realm. He said to the queen : 
" We will be doing honor to a wonderful general 
and pay a high tribute to a great nation if we 
receive ex-President Grant as a sovereign." 

And so when Grant's steamer reached Liverpool, 
the flags of all nations were flung to the breeze in 
greeting. Hail Columbia and The Star Spangled 
Banner were played by the bands. 

At Manchester, where the lack of cotton during 
the American war had stopped the humming of 
thousands of spindles, the name of Grant was well 
known. 

When he made a speech to the delegates from 
the Labor Unions, he said : ** In America we 
recognize that labor dishonors no man. No 



250 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

matter what a man's occupation is, he is eligible to 
fill any post in the gift of the people." 

And who was better fitted than Grant, the 
tanner, to prove these words? 

He was received in state at Windsor Castle by 
the queen, and the Prince of Wales did him honor. 

Wherever Grant went he learned much about 
famous generals. In Sweden he saw the clothes of 
Gustavus Adolphus, stained with the blood of battle; 
in Germany he stood at the grave of Frederick the 
Great ; in France he lingered over the tomb of 
Napoleon; in Spain he examined the armor of 
King Ferdinand ; in Italy he admired the marble 
busts of the Caesars ; in Russia he held the sword 
of Peter the Great ; in Fgypt he climbed the pyra- 
mids of the Pharaohs. Wherever he went he 
heard of great generals and he knew that the 
world called him one of the greatest. 

Yet when he entered Jerusalem and saw the 
tomb of Jesus of Nazareth, he said: " Here slept 
the real warrior ! He conquered the world with 
his love." He stood a long time with bowed head 
at this tomb of the carpenter's son, whose mission 
was "peace on earth and good will to men!" 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 25 1 

When Grant reached China, he thought that no 
one there would know anything about him. Yet 
at Shanghai he was received with fireworks. One 
of the banners in a procession said: " Washington, 
Lincoln, and Grant, three immortal Americans!" 

The emperor of China was only eight years old 
and the prime minister, Li Hung Chang, received 
Grant at Canton. The two men became great 
friends. Grant urged the Chinese statesman to 
come to America to study modern methods of 
living. 

At Nagasaki, in Japan, the Mikado shook his 
hand. Such an honor had never before been 
granted to a foreigner. 

At last Grant set sail from Yokohama for home. 
When he reached San Francisco the harbor was 
crowded with steamers, yachts, and tugs. Thou- 
sands of his countrymen greeted him with cheers. 
Bands of music played national airs, and at night 
bonfires were built and sky-rockets lighted the 
sky. 

Grant went back to Galena. After a time he 
moved to New York city ; but wherever he lived 
he was loved and respected. 



252 THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

XV. — The Closing Years. 

General Grant lived in New York like any 
other private citizen. He invested his money in 
the banking business. He had wealth and friends 
and honor. It seemed that he would have noth- 
ing to do the rest of his life but enjoy himself. 

But the year that he was sixty-two years old 
misfortune came. The manager of his bank 
proved dishonest. Grant found himself deprived 
of his fortune. He fell ill. Throat trouble devel- 
oped. When he was able to be about again some 
publishers asked him to write for a magazine. 

He said he was not sure that he could write any- 
thing worth reading, but he would try. He wrote 
about the battle of Shiloh. 

Everybody wanted to read what the hero 
of Shiloh had written. The publishers were 
delighted. They asked him to write more ; and 
he wrote about the siege of Vicksburg. 

Meanwhile his throat was growing worse. One 
morning the doctors looked very grave. They 
told him he could live only a few months. 

Grant had never surrendered in any battle ; yet 
he knew that Death conquers all. He wanted 



THE STOR Y OF UL YSSES S. GRA NT. 253 



very much to live long enough to pay his debts 
and make his family comfortable. 

And so he began to write what he called his 
Memoirs. Most of the book was to be about the 
civil war. His throat pained him ; he grew thin 
and pale ; but he worked away at his task. He 
became so weak that he was removed to Mount 
McGregor, near Saratoga. 

News came to him that many thousand people 
had subscribed for his book. This pleased him 
very much. At last, the Memoirs was finished. 
He laid down his pen and, a few days later, on the 
23d of July, 1885, he died. 

His body was carried to the city hall in New 
York, where it lay in state. Thousands passed to 
view the remains. 

Almost all who passed had lost a relative or a 
friend in the war, and they felt that General Grant 
had gone to meet his comrades on the great 
recruiting ground on high. 

He was borne to a temporary vault on the 
banks of the Hudson. 

Among the pall-bearers were General Buckner, 
whom he had conquered at Fort Donelson, 



254 



THE STORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



and General Joseph E. Johnston, once the com- 
mander of Confederate armies. 

These heroes from the South walked side by 
side with other heroes from the North. 

A temple of pure white marble was erected in 
Riverside Park for his last resting place. Among 
those who contributed funds to build it was Li 
Hung Chang in far-away China. 

In 1897, when the Chinese prime minister came 
to New York, he was borne to the tomb in his 
sedan chair. He stood long in silence at the sar- 
cophagus which enclosed the remains of his friend. 

And every day in winter, when the snow lies 
cold around the marble tomb, and in summer, 
when the banks of the Hudson gird it with green, 
people enter within the noble monument and 
stand in silence before the remains of Ulysses S. 
Grant, the protector of our American Union ; and 
with solemn thoughts they read the inscription, 
Grant's own words, carved in the white stone 
above the doorway : — 



" Let us have Peace. 



^ 



JUL 5 1898 



iiiiiiilB^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




011 413 300 




